Disclaimer - I don't own anything. As the corporations say these days, you will own nothing & be happy. I don't, and have never claimed to, own Marvel or Disney or any of its characters. With that out of the way, let's goooo!
London
–Damian Hawthorne–
Appearing in his portal room, he took a breath, centered his thoughts, connected himself to the wards network, and activated the cleaning function for the Prison floor before disappearing from the spot, appearing in his office.
He needed to create some strong mental wards over that specific floor, different from the ones installed for the entire lair. Another flaw that he discovered just now. He had no way of applying the mental pressure part of the wards on a specific floor or individual.
Itt was always made with intruders in mind, so once it was activated, it would blast everyone whose magical signature was not saved in the ward structure with chilling mental pressure that would only increase in intensity, accompanied with actual physical pressure, to make sure that anyone foolish enough to get inside would be knocked out with prejudice, leaving anyone keyed into the wards safe from that.
Now, he had to keep it active, but only for a single floor. He could have just made changes to the original ward structure but over time, with multiple additions, iterations and failsafes, it had grown to become a monster of a ward that even he could not change on the fly, certainly not with a deadline with lives hanging in the balance, of both the thralls and any innocent people they might hurt in the meantime.
He had no idea what Dumbledore's plan was, so keeping them knocked out was the best option. Keeping them in suspended animation with bio nutrients flowing directly into their bodies would have been the ideal option but once again, no time for that.
Which is why he was in his workshop, having discarded his adventure outfit, so to speak, after thoroughly checking for any foreign tracking magic, to make something that would hold for days.
Once the thralls were gathered, he could either make something better or consult the Ancient One on her opinion. Speaking of whom, he needed a single portal slinging member, and according to the current Guardian of the London Sanctum, all Masters were called for an emergency meeting or something, which was very odd in his opinion, but then again, he was working with limited information here.
Shrugging, he focused on making the blocks that would be placed at the corners of the floor, encompassing a quarter of the prison floor, which was sufficient to hold hundreds of prisoners, with their own cells.
Washrooms was something he hadn't made yet, but that was firmly in the optional category for now. Once they are in here though, he will make something. No reason to treat them as less than human, and that was just the basic dignity afforded to even pedophiles, so noting that in his mental to do list, he put the final enchantment in, but instead of powering it with the base' power source, he instead chose to use one of the giant dimensional energy batteries, converting dimensional energy to magic.
Perks of dimensional energy being virtually infinite.
The lair itself used multiple energy sources to make sure it could not be taken out. Geothermal energy, solar energy, wind energy, dimensional energy were all being used to power the wards, with the ward matrix intelligently choosing the right energy mix on the fly whenever certain functions of the wards were being used, to prevent early burnout of the main enchantments.
It was common sense. Using neutral dimensional energy to power a heating ward was nonsense and horribly inefficient compared to using either heat from geothermal energy or solar energy. He was particularly proud of that, even if it put undue stress on the ward matrix.
It was also why he was intent on getting into Hogwarts, and studying its ward structure. Fanon told him that Hogwarts as an entity was alive and capable of self sustenance, which was very fascinating to him, but it also told him, in the same breath, that the same Hogwarts, an all powerful entity within the castle walls, was chained to the will of the Headmasters and was being horribly abused by Dumbledore who was an evil wizard to the core.
So, yeah, he was skeptical about that particular claim. Nevertheless, it would be great to study Hogwarts ward structure.
Shaking his head, he placed the final block on the ground, checked the position of the others, made sure it was all in alignment with each other, before snapping his fingers, creating a metaphorical magical flame that lit up all the stones before burning red waves shot out each of them, colliding with each other to create a giant force field capable of burning through anything that touched it.
Just to test, he thrust his hand into it, the forcefield immediately surging forth with temperatures exceeding 500 degrees, intent on snuffing out any intruder. Alas, his personal protections kicked in, even as he mentally held back the original ward structures from interfering. The ward matrix was on the verge of using its full magical might to snuff out this current enchantment, which was yet another indication that it was working as intended, which brought a smile to his face.
The personal protections he had in place were easily able to keep the heat at bay as he moved his hand through the forcefield, as if slicing through butter, the motion requiring quite a bit of force behind it. He nodded as the hole loft behind was covered almost instantly, with only a hole the size of his wrist remaining.
Retrieving his hand, he ignored the smoking, and saw that the wards were working to his satisfaction. Now, if only he could have asked someone to make a portal directly to this place, but no, he had to ban any spatial manipulation coming from directly outside. Which meant he needed not one but two portal pairs working in tandem.
One to bring them from the outside world to the portal room, and the other to transport them from the portal room to this floor.
Another flaw that could only be discovered when a real life problem hit in the face. Another thing to add to the ward structure. Maybe something that would create a hole in the portal room, straight to any other floor? But that would just compromise the overall security of the portal room, since currently it was also rigged to just destroy anything that came inside if it somehow managed to circumvent or brute force through the wards.
Sighing, he realised that he might need to go to Kamar Taj, and with the only people capable of vouching for his credibility somehow absent, it was going to take some creative thinking on his side to do that. No way was he going to side apparate dozens of people, who might be actively hostile to him.
Can't risk splinching, for them or for himself. That would be horrible. He had to actively remind himself that they were people and being thralls was not a crime in and of itself. They were the victims here, presuming that they were turned against their will and had not committed any horrible crime in the time between them being turned and being captured by him.
Within moments of the imprisonment and mental pressure ward active, he teleported back to the workshop, donned his work uniform, then moved to the Portal room before finally appearing back on top of the Big Ben, the city and its light looking so beautiful from the top.
Alas, the two thralls at the edge of his range dampened the vibe of the place, as he flew straight to the Sanctum. He needed at least two portal wielding people and that requirement did not mean just Masters of Kamra Taj. Sure, the apprentices might not be as fluid as the Masters, but a decent portal mastery was leagues safer than decent apparition mastery, where even seasoned masters sometimes ran the risk of leaving behind parts of their bodies if their mind and magic was not properly in sync.
No such risk with Portals made from dimensional energy, an inherently safer energy. Wizard energy in contrast, was much more volatile but also easier to wield and mold despite the energy acting as if it had a mind of its own.
Dimensional energy was just that, energy. Completely neutral, ever present and predictable in its behavior, which is probably the reason why it was preferred by Agomotto and then consequently by Kamar Taj as well.
Within minutes, he was at the front door of the Sanctum, choosing to enter this way because he needed a good rapport with the person currently inside. Argh, things would have been so much easier had Corven been here. Likely, the issue would have been resolved without him running the risk of exposing his lair to the likes of Dumbledore and whoever he pulled in to solve the vampiric thralls issue, likely another ancient vampire fuck who owed a favour to Dumbledore.
The dude was so old that everyone and their grandma owed him a favour.
After some firm and urgent knocks, the door swung open and the same confused, somewhat sleepy, and wary face greeted him, "What are you doing here? Look, I have relayed your message but unfortunately, we are busy with–"
"If you don't have any Masters active, then can you help me look for a couple of apprentices? I just need someone who can reliably open and close portals, that's it. I can do the rest."
The man turned thoughtful for a second before he saw the rejection kick in, even before the words were spoken. Kind of desperate at this point, he spoke once more, "Look, I have rescued the child and his family. They are safe at this point, and the vampires are dead. I have killed them as well, but the thralls still remain. They are over 50 and they are still moving about the city, looking for the child. I do not wish for them to die, they are innocent people turned into thralls through no fault of their own.
Please, I just need two people."
His heart sank as he saw not just rejection on the man's face now but open disgust, and before the words were even spoken, he knew in his heart, that he was not going to get help from him. In fact, from here on out, he was actively going to dig his feet in and not provide him any help.
"No. Why would you even think of—--"
He did not hear the rest as he rocketed from the place, keeping the stealth in place. His mind raced as he tried to figure out some other way to finish this, because one way or another, he was going to make sure that those people lived to see the moon rise again.
He was not going to have dozens of people die on his watch, especially if he could do something about that, and he was so close too!
If you would like to support me, read ahead(12 chapters rn) on this & other stories, commission more stuff like this, or vote in Snippet Polls, you can head on to my P*treon.