The Veiled Vestiges – Last of his kind

Disclaimer– This is a work of purely speculative fiction. It is not intended to infringe on any rights by and of the companies and/or individuals involved in the production of any series mentioned here. The characters involved are the intellectual property of their respective authors/creators except for the ones that are listed as an OC, which are mine.

A/N– 1. Grounded Forever, The last rising of the phoenix, mithrilandtj, ellainaparkerr, Djberneman, Crywolfseven, only harmony and all the other readers, thank you for your support and interest in my work. Your reviews were very much appreciated. For those to whom I could not reply in time, stay tuned folks, your questions will be answered shortly.

2. I have taken the advice of a friend and have decided to choose the next story to be updated partly on the basis of a poll which will be available on my profile. So make sure you contribute to get your favourite story updated sooner. Notice that I said 'partly'and that is because while I value the opinion of my readers, I do still have some rhythm that I like to follow when I am writing drafts for #tvv and #tvvLOHK. The poll between chapter 3 of #tvvLOHK or chapter 13 of #tvv will be up by 20 Jan '20. (chapter 12 of #tvv will be posted irrespective of the result of these polls. I hate cliffhangers as much as you do.)

That is all. Enjoy the Chapter.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Chapter 2
A Step into the Unknown

"...Tell me everything."

She felt his strong grip on her shoulders as his emerald eyes bored into her. Rarely, if ever, had she felt him look at her with such determination that spoke of the intense emotions that were undoubtedly swirling inside him. Even though his body was a phantasmal construct that she had created for his essence to reside within her realm, she could still feel as if his hands were solid enough to bruise her own as he stood in front of her with a resoluteness that reminded her of the time when he had been a warrior among his kind.

She gently moved away from his grip and turned towards the tendrils of the black miasma that touched her fingers and melted into her being as she began. "When there was nothing, no sentient life in any corner of the abyss of the eternal void, there was him. Him and nothing else. He created everything. Every life form, every single particle that came into being, did because he wanted it to so. Life thrived. Countless civilizations boomed and seeing him standing above them, their creator, they worshipped him as their god. 'יהוה' they called him…'Yahweh' as you would understand the term. And he cherished them for they were his creations. His first. And a benevolent creator he was. At least back then." Death stared into the void as she looked back into those lost beginnings, playing with the soft black tendrils as they moved in and out of her skin.

"Just as the first life came into existence, so did something else," she continued even as the black shadows fluttered happily beneath her touch. "It was not of Yahweh's own accord that another being burst forth from the black miasma of the void. A being whose sole purpose for existence was to keep the balance of existence. A being who reaped his creations when the life in them dimmed to a standstill. Who ensured there would always be an end to his beginnings. It was the will of the universe itself to birth that being. To birth me…Death."

"And thus continued the cycle. He built and erased. He created and I reaped. Observing the balance. Until…until it all changed. He changed. Having grown tired of it all, he began to see his creations as flawed, missing something crucial that only he could see. And so began his search for the perfect creations. Countless souls, snuffed because he deemed them unworthy. And he eradicated them all. Eviscerated them without mercy well before the light of their lives had dimmed to a standstill.

"Before I could reap the souls and allow them to flow back into the cycle, he broke their essence to merge with his own…all in search of something that only he understood. It took some time before he realised that the souls had begun to bolster his strength, that every universe he created and every life that bloomed within it as a result, quaffing them increased his own powers to new heights. But when he did…it became impossible for him to stop," she said with a saddened countenance.

Harry stood still as he heard her origins for the first time since he had ever known her. There was anger simmering beneath his phantasmal skin and despite that, despite how he felt about what she was telling him he realised that she speaking to him with such openness that she had never displayed before. She had always been courteous to him, true, but whenever he had asked her something in relation to the cosmic workings of the universe, she had always declined to entertain such queries. And now he knew why. It was something akin to shame that she felt. Shame that she had been unable to do the one thing that she had been created for. To observe the balance. But something in her words did cause him to pause in his musings.

"You said he created us both," he asked wondering whether she had lied previously to pacify him in his grief-filled state.

Broken from her reverie and the monotonous description she was detailing for his knowledge, she turned her head slightly to keep him in her periphery knowing exactly what had caused him to interrupt her. "He did. Not knowingly, no. Nor even perhaps directly. I think if he had, he would have done everything in his power to erase me since he became aware of my existence as fearful as he was, even then, of someone stealing his highly covetous powers. But the truth remains that I came into being because of his actions. Beyond that, I do not know nor care for my origins. From the first moment that consciousness filled by being I had known but one purpose, Harry. To keep the balance…and I have failed far more than I have succeeded," she muttered, her voice solemn.

Harry looked at her for the longest time. The silence between them giving him some reprieve to consider her words. Death had never lied to him and to have even thought that she would now, was a sign that he was still reeling from his own losses even after all this time.

It had taken him a long time to come to terms that he had failed so utterly in his quest. When he had first woken up in her domain after the ritual and had heard of his failure, it had felt as if all meaning of his pitiful existence had been lost with his people. He did not know how the time passed in her realm but to him, it had been years upon years that he had spent in his grief losing himself in the memories of times past.

But there had been times, little as they may have been when he and Death had shared some of their lives with each other. Him regaling her with some of the happy memories he had spent with his people and her telling him about civilizations that he had never ever heard of before. It had been an arrangement that had kept him from the edge of insanity, even if had been few and in between.

And then after a particularly vicious memory where he had experienced the pain of losing his beloved all over again, he let his grief dictate his actions. It had been the last argument he'd had with Death after which he had forced himself into the deep slumber.

Hearing the tinge of loneliness in her voice, it was an action he more than slightly regretted at the moment.

Her delicate voice turned a bit sharper and forced his attention back to her. "He created singularities, Harry. With his own essence! This creation, this universe that has been brought into existence, it's not completely of his making. The singularities…his powers, they are a literal part of him that merged with his being well before the first iteration of the universe."

She waved her hands and an image started to form in between them. Six differently coloured clouds surged from nothingness and started roaming the void as the black abyss between them started changing anything and everything around them. In a span of a few seconds, hundreds upon hundreds of stars started forming around the six singularities as they burned hot and bright.

"This…" she said waving her hand at the image, "…is the result of his foolishness. This iteration of the universe has become massively different than anything Yahweh could have ever created on his own. Even as we speak, countless life forms are blooming as a result of this union of singularities. Something even I could not have ever seen to come to pass." She pointed her delicate fingers and a frame wide as a wall opened up beside him.

Harry, despite everything he had seen in his world and some others since coming to Death's realm, was dumbstruck at the image that formed within the frame that Death had conjured. A seed the size of a small planet had taken form in a corner of the universe and within moments was expanding rapidly as if someone was watering it with an elixir of growth. Right before his eyes, it kept on forming and growing as the branches thick and strong touched ninedifferent stars at different reaches and still kept reaching far ahead.

When he couldn't fathom the scope of such an emergence, he turned to look at his companion with wide questioning eyes. "H..how?"

Death looked at his visage and she felt her lips form a small smile seeing the look of wonder in his eyes. "Power of creation is nothing to sneeze at, oh wise wizard. This is but an example of what has happened ever since the singularities came into being in this plane. The seed you saw was the genesis of the world tree or as the mortals have taken to calling it, 'Yggdrasil'." Seeing the uncomprehending look in his eyes she decided to impart the knowledge in a way she knew he would understand.

"What do you see when you look at the image as a whole, Harry?" she asked.

Harry whose expression had turned from wide-eyed wonder to a contemplative one as he heard her explain the meaning of the tree frowned at her question. "What else could I see but the gigantic tree encompassing the stars that could quite easily dwarf a planet! Well, at least a planet I am familiar with," he replied astonished.

Death simply continued to smile. "Hmm. Not surprising. But if I were being honest, I do find myself a bit disappointed that after millennia in my domain, you have not yet learned to see the cosmos as they are rather than what they appear to be."

Harry's frown deepened and he concentrated on the frame once more. He flared a bit of his magic to see through any cloud that might be hindering his vision and his emerald orbs flashed with power. As soon as the magic interspersed within the frame, the image shimmered away as if a mirage. What he saw then was something that he knew would forevermore be etched onto his psyche as one of the most entrancing things he had ever and would ever see again.

The tree had given way to a cosmic nimbus that expanded and contracted pulsatingly given an impression of a quiescent creature. It had waves of travelling energy trancing around the vast distances that connected the stars together through its mesh. It looked like a massive constellation that linked the nine planets through a cosmic channel.

"Beautiful is it not?" she whispered looking at his dumbstruck visage once more. "Yggdrasil, the world tree, is an energy field that supports and connects the Nine Worlds. It gives an impression of a tree in the mortal realm to those who do not possess this knowledge or are not capable of grasping such a magnificent beauty with their feeble minds. It's roots and branches, for lack of better words, each connects to different realms at different ends in space. It holds a font of knowledge to those who are capable enough to seek it from its fiery radiance," she finished.

Harry became thoughtful at that. He had long since realised that life forms in this iteration of the universe were not as limited as his people had been. She had explained to him once that when his universe had been created, it had consolidated so much power within just a single realm that it had given rise to a form of energy that had filled the life forms all on its own. This had been the reason that his people had magic. The powerful energy that was capable of warping reality but was hard to control and manipulate because of being so densely saturated within a relatively small space. A single planet.

And now when he saw the cosmic nimbus moving slowly and gently into a pattern as it's channels lit and extinguished all by themselves, he realised how small his world really had been when compared to the gargantuan system that was circulating within the frame. 'And to think, this is but a small section of the universe that had formed by the singularities!'

This realisation did nothing but increase his mortification at the level of destruction this Yahweh had caused during all this time. All the worlds he had annihilated just for the sake of reaching what he considered perfection. And with that realisation, he once again found himself thanking Death who had controlled the flow of time within her realm as much as she had. He could not fathom how close he would have been to that edge of insanity had he been exposed to the real flow of time and the sense of ruin that it carried with it.

He shook his head a little at that and once more turned his focus onto the mistress of the realm who was looking at him as he traversed through his rampant thoughts. When she saw him return from his meanderings, she continued. "And this was just the beginning. Long before the seed began its growth, Yahweh had realised his mistake. But he knew what he had done, he could not undo. At least not without giving up all the power that this creation had taken in its conception.

"Fearing the loss of his power, he did what every tyrant has every done when in a state such as his own. He created his guardians…" She waved her hand again and another image opened to his right.

Humongous beings, with their wide gargantuan bodies and colossal stature, dwarfed the planets as they stood among the constellations. Some with horns, some with heads looking as if they were wearing specialised helmets glared from within with such malice that he felt a shiver pass through him. "…Celestials, they called themselves. The first and only life form ever created in this iteration by Yahweh himself. They possessed vast matter and energy manipulation abilities capable of destroying millions in a span of a few minutes. And he tasked them with just one purpose…" She flicked her fingers and the Yggdrasil within the frame imploded within itself. "…to return him his lost powers," she whispered harshly.

Harry blanched as soon as he felt the life dim within the realm just as the world tree imploded in the image. And despite his courage, despite all his strength, his knees buckled a little as he thought of having to go against one of the behemoths he had seen just now.

Death, seemingly understanding the dilemma growing within him, replied amusedly, "Do not worry, mighty wizard. Their end came and went a very long time ago. You missed much in your slumber," she jibed petulantly hoping to rouse him a little and smiled when she saw his jaw tighten. "They conquered worlds for Yahweh and brought them to their knees. They butchered for him, massacred countless civilizations for his approval and wrought ruin to planets, all to please the one who had created them all. And then, when they had gained knowledge to do so, they did the unfathomable. To control such undiluted power, they united the singularities once again to do what none had ever been able to do before.

"Under their collective might and by the guiding hand of their creator, they shaped and reformed the six singularities into ingots of power.

"But treachery took hold of their hearts as it had done to their creator. Before they could do as Yahweh desired and before they could truly wield the collective might of the infinity stones, they all turned on each other, hoping to gain the power for themselves.

"The war that ensued…" she shook her head sadly, "…it was something that I cannot forget to this day. You cannot fathom the number of innocent souls that perished before their time, Harry. For a moment, I had thought that Yahweh would gain what he had wanted to all along. But fortunately before such could happen, the Celestials hunted each other to extinction. Even today, there are only two among the living and even they have no desire to look for the Stones," she shook her head at that. "All those Deaths…all those souls, gone…needlessly."

Harry seemingly wished to move to console her, to do…something to prevent the hurt that had seeped into her tone as she went on but held himself. He knew it would get much worse before he saw the silver lining that she had enticed him with. It had always been so in his life, it seemed unlikely for it to happen now.

Death, having not noticed his bout of sympathy or uncaring because of it, continued. "The stones, for one reason or another, spread themselves into the known and unknown universe, not to be seen for a long, a very long time. Even then, stories of their might spread among the living in hushed whispers. There are many still alive who covet them. The essence of the universe that should have never touched steps of a mortal realm…now within their grasp. The ingots of power…or as they were collectively called 'The Infinity Stones'." She intoned theatrically.

Suddenly a spark came into being at his front and expanded into the likeness of six Stones that started revolving around the shadowy forms of the Celestials.

"Space Stone, a stone that represents and governs over space, granting the wielder absolute control over space itself," she said flicking her finger as the blue ingot came forth from the revolving formation and hovered in front of him.

"Mind Stone," she continued. "which represents and governs the fabric of mind, granting whoever holds it complete control over the hearts and minds of others," another twitch and the yellow stone soon broke from its previous state stood hovering beside its brother.

"Power Stone which embodies both the sustaining and destructive forces of the universe, granting its wielder tremendous energy manipulation capabilities. The most destructive among all stones in terms of raw power." The purple ingot came forth and shone the brightest among all, it's luminescence shining in his emerald eyes.

"Time Stone, that represents and governs over the flow of time joining the ranks among the most powerful artefacts in all existence." The green ingot shimmered into existence right before his eyes, defying its brothers, its green glow making his eyes flash all the more with its presence.

"Soul Stone…the most loathsome essence of power," she hissed gripping at her anger," a sentient ingot with a primary desire to collect souls, granting the holder power to attack another's soul in various ways. Its mere claim requiring the sacrifice of the one you love the most. Even now it carries within itself millions upon millions of souls, their essence powering it to levels that none could have ever imagined." Harry felt the churning in his gut increased as he felt the orange ingot appear in his periphery. His simmering anger matching that of his companion boiling at the thought of doing something so reprehensible to gain such power.

Before he could pour out some of his feelings on the matter, Death continued, knowing the effect that the description would have had on him. "And the Reality Stone…" she paused, wondering what he would make of it. "…the only essence of power that rejected the attempts of the Celestials to change its form. The entity that became known as 'the ēTHər' which represented and governs over reality, granting its user absolute control over reality itself. Allowing itself to be wielded by only those of exceptional power and control…"

She looked straight in his eyes even as his own were stuck capturing the potent presence of the maroon ingot that kept changing its form from stone to a waspy fluid in front of him continuously. She had known from the start that the nature of this particular power would interest him the most. Even now. "…The power that, in your world, gave birth to the abilities of your kind," she finished softly.

His eyes snapped to her own in an instant as he registered her words. "Magic," he breathed ever so softly.

"Magic." She agreed. "The power that manifested of its own accord in your world. The semi-sentience that inadvertently became the reason that Yahweh felt threatened enough to eradicate any and all hints of your world from existence, not even leaving the beings of higher planes. Anything and everything… all except you."

Harry reeled back at the reminder. His surprise at finding the true origins of his abilities subsiding at the morose reminder of his loss. His countenance showed his inner musings and when he spoke, his words were once again tinged with the sadness that always came when they spoke of his past. "Why leave me? If he felt as threatened as you seem to think then why not erase me with all my people?" he asked controlling the rage bubbling inside him with his mountainous will.

And to his surprise, she laughed. A hollow sound that despite the vastness of her domain, seemed to echo around them both. "Leave you?..." she chuckled without mirth, "…you think he left you be, wizard?" Seeing him staring at her with the same uncomprehending expression she sighed wondering how he could be an exceptional leader and warrior in one second and so dense the other.

"When you attempted your ritual to send your essence back in time, it traversed a path that Fate allowed it to. She had wished to lead you to a domain that was controlled by her and her brethren. The beings of the higher plane who foolishly considered themselves to be 'gods' of all things…" she hissed the word with more than a little venom. "…where they would have picked at your soul and ripped it apart slowly and painfully feasting on it as they had done to many others," she grimaced at what her own psyche imagined his state to be. She had seen the so-called 'gods' have a feast or two in her life when she had been bound to their will and it had been enough for her to realise that their true nature was derived from their creator himself.

She peered at him from the side, having turned slightly in her hollow mirth and his grim face made her believe that he had understood what would have likely happened to him had his essence been allowed to reach amidst the wolves of the higher plane.

"But fortunately for you," she continued, "I was able to draw you into the void and wrench your essence into my domain. The one place where no one, not even he himself could step into without my say so. And in his hubris, and though he would never admit it, a little fear, he erased your world the moment your soul left the constraints of your world leaving behind nought a single speck, not even his puppets who had dared to call themselves gods," she answered, her voicing diming in the end.

Harry had no trouble imagining the kind of end she had saved him from, having met Fate in a small encounter in his head when vaunted Dark Lord had seen fit to try and end his existence with a well-placed killing curse after giving him a choice between his end and that of his beloved. Fate had mocked him then. Had told him all about the pleasure she had had while weaving the tapestry of his Death and that of his loved ones. The insufferable bitch.

He was mature enough to realise that had it been a few hundred years in the past, he would have, and had, in fact, reacted harshly for her help in saving his life when all others had been lost to him…when she had been lost to him. And would have even slapped away the hand she had brought forth to keep him from drowning.

But something had changed in the time he had last gained consciousness and now. The slumber had been almost peaceful in its essence. While it hadn't completely soothed the wounds that still surged awake sometimes, it had helped channel his emotions somewhat. The raw and painful feeling of loss had given way to cold fire of revenge within his chest. It writhed and churned within. Waiting. Deepening into a fury that rivalled that of the being standing in front of him. And further, it had given him a deep understanding of the connection that he shared with her and through it, Death herself. He realised and was even somewhat ashamed of how he had treated her during the times when his grief had overridden his sense of belonging with her. He knew now and had perhaps known it even then, that she would always be there for him doing whatever she could to ease his pain.

Even if what he desire was vengeance.

After learning the fate of his people, he knew with some certainty, that anything he did, anything he could do, anything at all, it would not be enough to bring them back. There needed to be something left of them to bring back. But their own creator, their life-giver himself had taken their souls, their very being and had erased them from existence. And such had been his fear of what they could do that he hadn't just displaced them from one plane to another but absorbed their essence into his own to never be split from it ever again.

Their faces marred with pain etched on them, even now, lingered in his mind as they looked at him with their eyes filled with despair, crying desperately for him to reach out and pull them back from the abyss.

And it was this realisation that kept fueling the cold fire in his gut. That kept him from ever getting over what the Yahweh had done to his people with such casual indifference. Death was right in this instant. She may not have been able to give him his people back, but she had given him the next best thing.

His vengeance.

Harry looked at the very being that had been his companion for the longest of time without him even realising the importance of it all. She had turned her back to him during his inner musings and was once again occupied with the shadowy tendrils that kept merging with her own form. He slowly walked over to her and decided to say the one thing that had never said to her.

"Thank you…Death," he murmured in the softest of whispers.

Her hands that were caressing the black miasma with gentle strokes stopped abruptly as she heard the words that escaped his ethereal lips. She stood still with her back turned and the tendrils around her swaying around her as if upset that their mistress had stopped caring for them so lovingly. Despite the oddity of such an action, especially in her own realm where she controlled any and all, he nevertheless heard her breath hitch for just an instant before it seemed to even out.

With slow deliberate movement, she turned herself around to look into his eyes and held his gaze. They stood stock-still, the passing of the matter and time not mattering in the slightest as they kept looking into each other's eyes as if searching for that something that gave credence to the proof to what both meant for each other.

When she broke the sight, she cupped his face with such delicate fingers as though afraid of breaking him with a simple touch. "You need not ever thank me, Harry. What you have done for me nay for the whole existence, then and now, and what you became after your sacrifice…there are no words in any languages of the times of old or present that could ever express my gratitude.

"I remember the time when I was but a puppet to the whimsy of the higher beings of your world. How they had tricked me, luring me away from my domain with their honied words of peace and promises of releasing the lost souls back into the cycle. How Yahweh himself had bound me after I had willingly given away the three piecesof my essenceto ensure the balance when those who had been tasked with the protection of the existence had threatened to strip it bare with their covetous hands.

I remember the pain of losing my power. The humiliation I had been forced to endure while they played with the creations and souls as if born to do so," she spat, her hands on his face shaking with the anger that she felt rising within her. And when the darkness within the realm started to coalesce, she forcibly pushed down the anger deep in her and sighed.

"And then you came. The only being to ever hold the power of Death in his hands. The gatherer of the mighty Deathly Hallows, the long lost whisps of my power. And as your kind foolishly branded the term…The Master of Death." He flinched as she said the most hated moniker that he had acquired through no desire of his own and her gentle visage grew ever more warm and understanding. "Ever now, its reminder pains you. I see it in your eyes, I feel it in your touch," she caressed his cheeks with her now glowing hands surging long-forgotten feelings of peace within him.

"Even though you knew what it would entail, what it would take from you, you chose to return them to me simply to renew the balance so those who had already lost their lives in your struggle against that disgusting leech Riddle would not be lost to the ether. By that one decision, by that one choice, you stood yourself apart from many who long coveted my power, Harry. You cannot fathom how many before you tried and failed to wield one or the other symbols of my power that Yahweh had so uncaringly thrown amidst your kind just to hold me his prisoner," she said looking somewhat lost in the memories of her own pain that she had suffered at the hands of the higher beings and their master, the creator himself.

Harry took hold of her hands in his own and gently grasped them returning the warmth he had felt from her. "I did what I did simply because it was the right thing to do, Death. You do not owe me anything. If anything, it was something selfish on my part. What would it have mattered if the souls that passed on were forever lost to those who waited to join them in the afterlife? And even if you did, I think we can call it even for that…you know…saving my soul from being ripped by Fate and her cohorts and the whole shebang," he said giving her a small smile.

She shook her head smiling fondly at him. 'He would never understand the importance of his sacrifice. To him, as he said, it was simply the 'right thing to do', and for me, it was my very being that he had made whole again.'

At least as much whole as he could make without ripping his own soul to shreds. For a time it had been a conundrum to her as well, that a bit of her most defining power which had taken form of an artefact that those of his kind knew of as 'The Cloak of Invisibility', it had long since merged with his being by the virtue of his own power and lifeblood. The proof had shown itself on his very being as the moment that she had attempted to make a phantasmal form for his essence to reside, a vaguely shaped open-mouthed form of a triangle had appeared just above his chest all on its own. ('Ʋ')

Even when he had wanted to, he couldn't return the cloak to her, though he had, of course, tried. Calling it from within, the shroud of whispy black that enveloped him whole, he had tried to pry it from his skin but had gained nothing but terrible pain and anguish in return. It was after one such try when she had found him on the ground screaming from the agony that she had barred his further attempts at the monumentally foolish task being unable to see him hurt himself in such a grotesque manner.

It had been during the earlier days too when his grief over his loss had become overwhelming for him to allow himself even a chance at continuing his existence. Even with her telling him the consequences of such an action, all he had remembered in those days was the contempt he felt for her for saving him and not letting him end his cruel reality. He had hated being her extension. Had hated being a part of her. A part of Death.

She shook the morose memories of the past and gently removed her hand from his grasp. No matter what happened in the past, they had a chance to change the future of the continuum. And whatever happened, she knew, she would never to alone again. Harry would never perish to the ether. Even if he died in the mortal realm, which knowing what she did about his capabilities was a monstrously hard thing to do…but even if he did happen to die, as her extension, his essence would always return to her, to be with her. Always.

She knew he was aware of the truth as well. She had explained as much to him during an odd conversation, they had shared so long ago talking about what could be. She moved back towards the tendrils as they playfully touched her form, merging in and out of it as they fed her the cosmic entropies.

Harry returned his attention back to still hovering forms of the six stones that kept pulsating in his presence. He was still ingesting the information that Death had given him about the new iteration of the universe. And wasn't that a peculiar thought? Consciously just a few hundred years old and the world had been built anew...and not for the first time either!

It took him a while to really register everything that she had told him. It was understandably somewhat of a major change that he had to adapt to. There was life blooming in the world again. Complex and more thriving than it had ever been on his world.

'Should I really be surprised though? With the focus of these...these singularities expanding to such a large scale, it's no wonder that life has spread in the universe this vastly. There are nine dangling planets connected to some sort of a semi-sentient cosmic hub floating in front of my eyes for Merlin's sake! And that isn't even a tenth of the known universe! To find the stones in this big a haystack...' he trailed away grimly. It was a daunting task. Gathering such symbols of powers from wherever they had ended up after the war among the Celestials.

'Nonetheless. I cannot let their Deaths be just another causality of a megalomaniac's search of perfection.' He thought resolutely. With a steely resolve and calm mind, he channelled his thoughts into a state he never thought he would ever needto don again. He returned to being the leader who had fought and erased the forces that had meant him and his harm. The fire in his emerald orbs lit anew as he thought of the impending mission that his companion had seen fit to make him realise.

He needed to gain as much information as needed before he could even think of beginning his search. Much more than he had now. He took a moment to collect his thoughts and addressed Death once more. "I suppose if these Celestials were capable of gathering the singularities it is, at the very least, a possible venture. But if they are as coveted as you thought they were, there is no doubt in my mind that I would not be the only one who would be searching for them.

"Greed, no matter the world, is something that would always be capable of captivating a being's heart. And if I understand the implications of what you have shown me correctly, there would be beings in this universe who would be dangerous with a capital D. And I'm not ashamed to admit that even with my past and my own abilities, it would not be a task that could be done without massive resources…resources that I would not have. You know, I am not even sure how I would be able to enter the mortal realm anymore considering the obvious." He asked looking at her with a furrowed brow.

She sighed audibly at his query. "Even after all this time, Harry, you still fail to realise how special you are," she chided gently. "No matter. Let me give you a perspective then. When your world was created, Yahweh for reasons only known to him concentrated all his efforts on a scale that was much smaller than his usual attempts. He used his powers, the powers of the singularities on such a concentrated focal point that the life that should have taken millions of years to bloom, did so in a tenth of that period. An event that had never been observed before. Not in the dozen times he had attempted such a thing.

"And that wasn't the only thing that was different in this new conception. The most unpredictable singularity, the only to ever reject Yahweh's whims to some limits, it gave birth to an energy that was capable of replicating itself to an infinite amount. The energy that was capable of warping his creations. The sentient energy that in its essence, always strived to keep the balance in your world. The balance, which, your own kind foolishly thought to be between such idiotic notions as light and dark," she scoffed remembering the one-dimensional thinking of his people.

"Years passed and your kind were born, capable of housing and even controlling this marvellous energy. Many before you controlled it to varying degrees. The most prominent among them, the one your kind who was hailed as the wisest and most powerful among them all, the being who became known as Merlin, was only one of the few who achieved a level Yahweh never would have believed your kind to be capable of. It was also when he began to fear the potential of your people.

"And then…then you came along. An aberration. A being so immersed in this energy, it was as though your soul had been dipped into it well before it chose your body as its vessel. Even I, Death, bound as I was, felt it deep within my very being the very first time you interacted with the energy consciously," she said shaking her head a little as she imagined the connection she had felt with him even then.

"The trials you were forced to undergo, the forces you had to conquer, the adventures you had along the way, you may consider it mere luck, but even in your younger years, oh yes, even then, you were every bit as powerful as your nemesis. Did you ever wonder why it took so much effort on your part to control your magic?" she asked looking at him as if he had missed the obvious.

Seeing his pensive expression, she shook her head and continued. "Fated or not, it could not be denied that you were his equal, Harry. You led your people through wars that spun decades, my wizard. You bled and you lost and you continued still. The strength of your character was what gathered so many to you. Your compassion brought you closer to those you wished to protect. Your skill as a leader allowed your kind to survive as long as they did. If an end to Yahweh's tyranny is to come, and there is anyone capable of achieving this…I cannot think of a better choice than you," she said with quiet confidence.

Seeing his expression turn a bit more introspective, she continued. "And as for how you would be able to enter the mortal realm…well, despite not being as connected as I used to be with its working," she stroked a tendril with a forlorn expression, "I am more than capable of descending your soul to the realm."

Harry looked sharply at her remark. He knew, despite her more humane expressions and her polite candour, she was a cataclysmic force capable of decimating worlds with just a simple wave of her hand, a form he had seen her don only once, the time when she had been returned to her full powers after he had removed her bindings. It had been a humbling experience.

It also gave way to an irrefutable truth that she was the only ever-present entity who remained after every destruction. But it was her purpose that stood her apart. She existed to bring peace to those who had lived their lives with the time given to them by the will of the universe itself. It was the one constant that hadn't ever changed in any and all iterations of the universe. And despite having being bound once, her connection to the mortal realm had always remained strong. To hear her say that she had lost some of that connection was mind-boggling to him.

And now that she had said it, the reason became glaringly obvious.

The empty space behind her, where until now stood nothing, shimmered away as the broad gateway of stone and masonry came forth to his senses and he sucked in a breath.

The Veil of Death stood in front of him with all its otherworldly glory.

A physical manifestation of the cycle of souls that contained within itself the ivory, seemingly fluid archway which stood erect in front of his ethereal form. But that was not what had caught his attention. No. The thing that stumped him and filled him with dread for some unknown reason was the stillness of it all. And it was the silence that made him aware that something was seriously wrong with what he was seeing.

The Veil that until now used to hum with the presence of countless souls was for the very first time since its conception, utterly still. The sweet whisperings of the departed souls from within that brought peace to those who knew of its meaning were as silent as the night. The connection that he had always felt with the archway sung nothing even as he stumbled past her to touch it with his ghostly hands.

To anyone else who did not know the significance of the archway, it would have been difficult to understand why the image in front of him was so shock-inducing, but to him, who knew how essential it was to those who had passed on, it was downright horrifying.

Ever since his godfather had given his life being struck down into the familiar archway because of his foolishness during his dalliance with the Death Eaters in the Ministry chambers, it's form had been etched into his mind. He had laid awake in nights wondering whether it had just been a portal of some kind that took Sirius away somewhere other than the final resting place as others had alluded to.

Knowing his dilemma as she did, it didn't surprise Death in the slightest when he asked her about its purpose during one of their heart to hearts before their argument. She had relented…had told him what the Veil meant for the continuum, for the very existence of the beings who were among the living and even more so for those who had passed on. Had it been an idle query from any soul other than him she would never have indulged them, but she knew his connection to the Veil would only grow stronger as his soul accepted its new charge. He was a part of her. It was his duty to observe the balance.

And now seeing the ever-flowing cycle so unmoving, so mute, he was so shocked that he didn't even realise he had spoken his horror out loud. "H…How?"

Death stopped her caressing as she felt the reason for his sudden distress before resuming again. "You weren't supposed to see that," she remarked softly.

"What? Wha…What happened? The cycle of souls! You told me it has always been a constant flow. That nothing could ever be allowed to stop it! The souls! It would erase them!" he yelled at her, still astonished at what he was seeing and not being able to match it with her calm demeanour.

When she didn't respond but continued to softly pet the shadows, he reached to her and grabbed her harshly. "DEATH! DO YOU NOT SEE THE VEIL? IT'S…IT'S..." he trailed away once again looking into the still form of the Veil.

"…"

"SAY SOMETHING! DO YOU NOT CARE ENOU…"

That was as far as he got before his ethereal form jerked and he was thrown away from her with a massive concussive force. The pressure from the shadows rained down on him and the beatific figure that had until now stood near him diminutively transformed into the only being that had any right to call itself…DEATH.

Her fiery radiance burst forth from within as in an instant she grew to the size of a small building. Bones, unmarred and glistening, layered upon her figure as the dress she had been wearing shimmered away as black swathes of shadowy robes covered her form. Her idle hands flicked and the shadows surrounding her transfigured themselves into her weapon of choice. A deadly double-sided scythe. Darkness from every pole gathered to her and the force holding him down increased by tenfolds.

He had to flare swathes of his own magic just to turn his head towards where she stood above him. The blue shining eyes that had long since turned into cobalt fire were looking at him from above freezing him with her gaze. "I…Do not see? I...do not realise, wizard? I do NOT FEEL THE ABSENCE OF THE PEACEFUL CACOPHONY OF THE SOULS THAT USED TO RESIDE WITHIN MY DOMAIN? THE ONES WHOSE PRESENCE IS THE ONLY REASON FOR MY EXISTENCE! YOU DARE ASK ME THIS? YOU DARE PRESUME I DO NOT CARE ENOUGH TO NOT NOTICE? YOU, WHO GAVE INTO HIS MISERY FOR CENTURIES! YOU DARE TO QUESTION MY ACTIONS!

"I…didn't…"

"SILENCE!" she roared.

Harry flinched, holding his being together as much as he could while the pressure pinning him down pulsed once again, biting into his essence.

The cobalt fire increased in Its intensity within her hollow eyes before she saw that his ethereal form was starting to diminish and his soul was starting to peek from the bursting seam. Seeing him trying and failing to keep his form intact brought her out of the rage that his uncomprehending words had induced in her and she diminished her presence with a simple thought.

As soon as the presence subsided he felt as though the air had finally returned to his non-existent lungs. He was still shaken somewhat having felt her overwhelming presence concentrated on himself for the very first time since he had known her. It didn't matter that it was the second time he was seeing her in her natural form because it was leagues apart to the feeling when he was the target of her burning fury.

A few moments passed before she reigned in her rampant fury though when she looked at him again, it was with narrowed eyes that made him realise that he was walking on thin ice with her at the moment. "If you wished to know what happened with the souls, suggesting that I do not care for the reason of my very existence is not the way to do so, wizard," she chided but it came off as a growl seeing as her form had still to change. "You may have become a part of me, but there is only so much that I would entertain from you," she looked sharply at him. "Remember that."

Harry looked at her tall form and with slow deliberate movements and nodded at her, still clutching at the bursting seams of his ethereal form.

Seeing his struggle, Death flicked one bony finger in his direction and he felt her energy surge within him as the seam repaired itself in an instant and he sighed thankfully. Seeing him recover, she gave answer to his query that he had dared to pose to her so rudely. "It is not something I am proud to admit, Harry," she sighed sadly, an action that seemed unnatural coming from her when she was in her true form.

"I cannot deny it, at least not any longer. Even after being tricked by him once before, I did not see it coming. AND I SHOULD HAVE," her presence pulsated once more. "I should have. Yahweh," she spat his name venomously, "as soon as he realised his folly, believing that I would attempt to snatch his power by absorbing the powerful essence of the souls birthed by the union of the singularities, took steps to ensure that I couldn't do as he feared. He DARED to think that I, DEATH, WOULD SINK TO HIS LEVEL," she roared again and the domain followed her will as the dark shadows descended upon them both increasingly.

"Before I could stop him, he created a higher plane to stop the souls that had passed on to ever reach me again. He denied them peace even after their struggles among the living just because he feared that I would gain more power than he held in his palms after his foolishness with the singularities. And to keep them locked, to keep them chained, he created her," she hissed with more distaste than she had ever shown for anyone, even Yahweh himself.

"That abomination," blue fire, cold and raw erupted on both sides of her, making him flinch from the sheer power that she was throwing around in her fury, "that desecratingwhore of false prophets, she had the audacity, the impudence to snatch my purpose from me, to call herself Death even after she had sensed my presence. And when I amassed enough power to reach out to her, to tell her what Yahweh was doing to the souls, to explain to her that without my touch, without my guidance, the souls would perish without ever gaining peace, SHE HAD THE NERVE TO SMIRK! TO LAUGH AT MY PREDICAMENT! HAD THE GALL TO CALL ME FALLACIOUS!" the fire turned from freezing cold to scorching hot in an instant and towered over him as he stumbled back trying to keep his footing. He had never seen her sofurious before.

'To have stopped her from reaching the souls,' he thought as he attempted to settle his flaring magic from resonating with her fury. Even though he knew, with utter certainty, that she would do him no real harm, it was getting difficult to not give in to the urge to rage and join her in eradicating this being. He held on though, if barely. 'It's no wonder she is this pissed off. If this being has done anything to the souls besides keeping them chained, I do not know what Death would do even after being untouched with the souls for this long. To have her purpose denied to her once again…' he shook his head sullenly, intimately knowing the kind of pain she must be feeling.

It took some time before the absurdly potent mix of hot and cold fire receded enough to stop resonating with his magic as Death calmed down somewhat. The blue melting fire contained within her eyes dimmed in its intensity and he hesitantly took a step in her direction. When she didn't immediately sublimate him on the spot, he gained some courage and quickly as he could walk near her to reach to her form and knowing instinctively what he needed to do, closed his eyes to focus and started pouring his magic into her form.

Thick wisps of onyx black and pearl white left his being and began to submerge with her towering form coalescing together as if being reunited with it's long lost moiety. The effect was almost instantaneous. The plumes of fire surrounding her started to subside slowly as her tremendous rage began to decrease.

Death felt his emotions through their connection and understood that he was just as appalled and infuriated with what had happened as she was. Hearing the whisperings of his magic as it soothed her and caressed her as it had never before made her realise how close she had gotten to releasing her full might in front of him. It was only his considerable control over his magic and his connection with her that had saved him from being torn apart from her sheer presence.

It still took more than a few moments for her true form to recede and shadows to return back to their usual passive state. In his need to soothe her sorrow and give her the anchor she needed to keep everything from collapsing, he had yet to notice the change. She saw him lost in the effort and with nary a thought eased her presence completely, regretting the loss of control on her part.

"You can stop now, Harry," she said softly, reaching out with her hands to cup his face once more. His eyes opened brimming with worry as he looked at her visage. Moments passed as they looked into each other's eyes, unneeding of the words they listened, knowing that neither had meant to belittle the other or their suffering.

"I am…sorry, Death. I…I did not mean that you didn't care. It's just…I didn't know what he had done. I did not know…" he attempted to explain needlessly yet again.

"Shhh…" she raised a delicate finger to his ethereal lips. "I know…I know what you meant," she said placatingly. "It is my shame, Harry. My failure. For the second time, he was able to wrench control from my hands and I could do nothing to stop him. Again. It still cuts me from within, it knaws at my being that I let all those souls into the hands of such despicable beings who would rather use them to bolster themselves rather than helping them flow back into the cycle as is the willof every universe ever created."

He reached for her hand and clasped it tightly within his own. "I understand," he replied solemnly.

They both stood still for many moments as shadows continued to wave around them skittishly. It was something new to both of them, having a sense of belonging with the other. Harry had never really fully embraced his connection with her and what it entailed. It had bothered him for the longest time…had incensed him that he was tied to her. But the time apart had given him a new and better perspective of things. It had made him realize what she meant to him when he could feel her within his very being. And despite his cool greeting when he had first seen her after he awoke from his slumber, he was actually very happy to see her face after being apart for so very long.

As was its wont, the moment passed and they separated knowing they had other more important matters to discuss. Harry regained his focus first and asked the query that had been churning in his gut ever since he had heard about it. "Is she dangerous?"

Despite feeling his recent resolution thrum within him with a reckoning force, she was still surprised somewhat at his query that hinted at his acceptance at the perilous quest that she was asking his help for. "You will go there once more?" she whispered. "You will brave those waters again even after all that has happened?" Death asked if only to hear it from his lips.

The ground beneath his feet thrummed as he unleashed some of his coiled emotions. "There is none among the living who know of the true origins of these infinity stones and intends to stop his subtle machinations. Those living beings down there," he gestured towards the various frames that she had propped up for his awakening, "they remain ignorant of the fact that their continued existence is dependent upon mere chance. A chance that the powers that spent so long within Yahweh's embrace that they have, by your own words, gained some sentience that gravitates towards his own tastes.

"The soul stone, how many souls have been lost to it hunger since its conception? How many more will be sacrificed to the being who called us his creations and spent most of his existence destroying us all with a flick of his wrists?"

"And who is left to avenge the fallen who had already lost themselves to his gluttony?" The potency of his need for vengeance surpassed her own and told her what she needed to with such clarity that any words from him would have failed to deliver.

When he, at last, gained his centre as before he addressed her once again. "Now, I need to know… Is shedangerous?"

The seriousness within them dissipated in an instant when Death looked at him with a look that all but asked had he hurt his head in their previous disagreement, and he clarified scowling at her half-heartedly. "I know what you said about her. Yes, I get it. She is bad news. Even if she isn't a true primordial like you, she does hold countless souls within her realm as a hostage. She won't be an easy target as is and when you add the power boosts those souls give her, and I know a straight-up fight with her will just send me back here to you, dead and done with.

"Buuut…" he stretched, pointing an ethereal finger to emphasise his point, "if we are going to send the bitch packing, we need some sort of plan and for that, I need to know what she is capable of, what she has been doing majorly and anything else that you can tell me about her, " he added seriously.

She nodded. "Hmm. I suppose you do at that," she said waving a hand at the empty space near the hovering stones as another frame shimmered into existence showing the grotesque image of a barren, decaying land. It was filled with the ridges of ivory mounds of small structures that upon closer inspection revealed themselves to be skeletons of millions of beings that were stacked up together.

Death looked grimly at his expression and continued. "She has taken many names over the millennia, Igbo, Yoruba, Coatlicue and others when she walked among the mortals, imbuing their hearts with malice and thirst for blood. She binds them to her will as she whispers promises of untold power if they did her bidding. While I could do nothing overtly to stop her disastrous deeds, I have done my utmost to keep an eye on her.

"It took me a few cycles to gain her whereabouts, but I did in the recent past saw her as she descended among the mortals once more. Taking the name Cythera, she has begun to touch the lives of a species known as Titans. Beings much larger than humans, their physical constitution is strong enough to wield energy with their bare hands even though they are incapable of producing it on their own, they live on the world named Titan. The planet itself is a vibrant world, full of life and resources, much similar to the worlds she had targeted in the past.

"Much of what she intends to do still alludes me, Harry and I cannot fathom why she has taken a form of a child of all things. My connection to the mortal realm is growing weaker still and her power is such that every time I have tried to expand my senses to get an inkling of her actions, she has rebuffed me again and again. What I perceived before my connection to the realm was stretched too thin was that she had focused much of her energy on a child on the world. I could not decipher much from my vision but his name. His people call him Thanos, Son of A'Lars. She spends most of her time with him for days on end and they do sparsely anything but confer with each other.

"Were I not familiar with her penchant for creating chaos with nothing but her enchanting voice and deceptively honied words, I would not have put much thought into it. But as I do, it niggles at me what she is planning to with him," she said worryingly.

Harry for his part, continued to listen and absorb as much as he could before he made even a beginning of the plan. It wouldn't do anything if he, as Death had put it, braved the waters without knowing all the parties in the mix.

A couple of moments later, Death shook her concerning thoughts and continued. "She controls a higher plane that was given to her by Yahweh. It is as stable a place as any and is capable of withstanding the potent energy that is no doubt still wafting off from all the souls that she had kept ensconced in there. The dimensional rifts that coincide with that plane within the mortal realm reside within one of the nine planets that are connected to Yggdrasil, known as Niflheim. After all these years of torturing them and sucking the energies from the souls entrapped in her domain, she is more than capable of some level of creation of her own. After millennia, she has gained mastery of the energies she has snatched from the souls," she looked in his emerald eyes with a look that spoke of the danger she had just described.

"So, to answer your question, yes, she is extremely dangerous."

The frame split into two as a desolate and a strange part glacial part fiery planet took form just below Cythera's higher plane. It looked like a gaseous giant of rock having nothing but sharp and steep black stone mountains and planes of molten rock as long and wide as one could turn their eyes. It gave a feeling of unrest even through the schism of the frame. Looking at it, Harry couldn't help but be remembered of the foul island in the North Sea on which the wizard prison was built. Azkaban. He knew that as bad as he felt the feeling now if he had to ever step onto its surface, and with his luck, it was a distinct possibility, the feeling would be worse still.

"So, we know that she is a conniving warmonger with a fondness for bloodshed and a fetish for skeletons who has a major power boost and know how to use it. Great…Just great," he sighed shaking his head. "Lets put a pin in that, shall we. I think we need to begin with something just to test the waters. Getting over ambitious without even knowing the parameters of this engagement would do nothing but slow us down. We need intel.

"For starters, I don't even know how much use I will be physically when I do get…well, down there. And that is to say nothing about the changes I have observed. I know you said before, that every iteration of the universe does essentially follow similar patterns but there must be some differences apart from, you know, having-galaxies-full-of-systems-with-countless-species-living-on-different-planets," he spoke jestingly, still astonished with the size of this new universe.

"Is there even an earth anymore? Are there humans living on it? Are there any humans at all on any planets? I am well out of my depth here, Death. I would need a lot more before we even begin to think about sending me down there to disentangle this mess," he added looking at her seriously.

Death nodded agreeably. "I agree. With a quest as richly dipped in uncertainty as this one, we do need to plan our advance carefully. But for your peace of mind, yes, your homeworld has been birthed once again. Earth is still much the same as it was in your universe. As in yours, it primarily houses humans," she said emphasizing the word for a moment. "There are other humanoid species who live on other worlds as well. I do not know much about them as I have not been able to gather as much as I wished to with my connection to the realm becoming as stretched as it has," she said with a tinge of annoyance touching her tone.

"To my knowledge, there are…"

And so she began to educate him on the bare bones of knowledge she had been able to scrape off from the universe. They discussed anything and everything that could help him in his quest.

Through her eyes, Harry saw the universe with the flow of time as perceived by those who lived in the mortal realm. He saw the struggles of beings who just wished to survive on their worlds despite living in harsh conditions and having no resources to call upon. He saw a whole species being slaughtered in wars that happened out of spite and reasons as petty as anything.

He even saw other humans living their lives on various worlds connected to Yggdrasil. He felt hubris disguising itself as pride when some among them, born with phenomenalabilities and life span of several thousand years began to consider themselves 'gods'. He saw them protect others in need which made him rethink some of his previous impressions he had formed about them and then he saw the same people slaughter others in cold blood just to conquer the worlds to expand their supremacy and his first impressions returned.

More often than not he saw them lie, deceive and cheat and even murder to get their way and it sickened him to see the hypocrisy of these gods when he saw their actions towards those they referred to as 'mortals.' And though many ideas surged in his mind when it came to these 'gods', he still made a mental note to watch out for them if he ever crossed their paths.

And interestingly he also saw the touch of the energy that had given his kind their magic. He saw the beings try and fail to use it for their gain. And though it was hard, he did his best to familiarize himself with the place he had last seen the signs of 'the ēTHər'.

Thus time passed, unquantifiable to any who knew of the properties of Death's realm. Harry leaned what he needed and Death gained the companionship she had desired for so very long. They both made plans and discussed various strategies (Death's vast experience helping him along the way) and ways to go about doing things without him getting in much trouble, which, if Death knew his luck as much as she did, was an impossibility in its own.

Soon enough they both realised it was time.

Saying their goodbyes and melding their essence with each other one last time, they were ready.

"Remember, our connection will be as thin as a thread until you have dealt with her," she reminded him for the umpteenth time.

"Yes, I remember," he replied crisply.

"I suppose there is nothing left to say then, my wizard," she sighed sadly.

Harry closed the distance between them and took hold of her hand. "I promise you, you will have your purpose again, Death. I will not rest until I have the bitch neutered and presented to you on a silver platter, you have my word," he vowed solemnly.

Death nodded and returned the gesture as she intoned with a tone that spoke volumes of the pain she was feeling having to see him leave her again. "Prepare yourself, it will be painful, Harry. You will feel nothing but pain before your essence reaches to the first hurdle of your quest."

He looked at her with a lopsided smirk. "What else is new?"

She smiled wanly at him and with a simple gesture of her hand, the phantasmal form she had created for his essence collapsed in on itself as his soul left in a flash of brilliant white, descending into the cesspit that was the mortal realm.

Shadows returned to their mistress, soothing her pain, reminding her of her duties as the cosmic entropies filled her being. "Safe travels, warrior. The world may have been built anew but it might not be ready for you yet."

-x-x-x-x-x-

~Review Please~

A/N - 1. The search for a cheap-ass domain is now over. I was finally able to get my hands on one. What does this mean for us, you ask?

Well... The website for all my stories and other writing pieces is now up and running.

Please visit "www.neatStuff.in" (don't forget to add 'www' as my domain is yet to get a SSL certificate) for all the latest chapters that are posted there a day before. I have put a lot of effort into it. Hope you like it.

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Thank You.