Chapter 60: Perceived Slight
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Max further relishes his climb to power while permiting a condition that may yet screw him over a thousand times worse even before his upcoming confrontation with #1.
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In a universe outside the TVD universe, where witches and wizards roam a hidden society far removed from muggle society, where the wizarding communities thrived and their schools — hidden from muggle society — dwelled, proud and true.
A young man who looked to be no older than 17 years old walked the streets of 1926 Diagon Alley, a simple, black business suitcase in-hand. He had auburn-brown hair, undyed, and long, pulled back into a well-kept ponytail. He wore a brown pair of jeans, a pair of brown and gold-trimmed, magi-leather boots, a white button-down, long-sleeve, his sleeves rolled up to the elbows, and a wine-red vintage button-down V-neck vest. Topping it off, the man wore an expensive wine-red and gold watch.
A katana was sheathed to his hip in a black, gold-trimmed sheath and, hanging from his belt-loop, was a silver embroidered chain where the Verbatim Stone hung, uninterrupted, with grace. The crowd he passed seemed to unconsciously part as if the path before them arched out of their way wherever he walked. They didn't even seem to notice him nor anything of his presence whatsoever, as if any and every semblance of his existence evaded the senses and awareness of the countless witches and wizards around him. It was as if reality itself couldn't possibly register his presence, nor anyone trapped within the confines of reality itself couldn't hope to even perceive him, let alone actually register his presence — a direct result of one of Max's oldest runes being active, the Rune of Privacy.
Max had upgraded it to a conceptual level in power level. Now, instead of just preventing being tracked by any person actively looking for him, it now masked Max from anyone in his reality, any eyes at all, shielding his presence, his scent, his body heat and anything his body or soul would naturally give off.
In terms of the concealment, there was no spell better than Max's Rune of Privacy. With it, even when he was physically around, reality itself wouldn't have even a record of him.
Max walked out of Diagon Alley, returning to his small place in the outskirts of Hogsmeade Village. He checked, double-checked and triple-checked the various concealment, protection and shielding runes lining the home and its perimeters. There were a few dozen layers of protection and forcefield runes layering over the perimeter of the place — safe guards for the invocation Max intended to perform tonight.
'I've spent 3 months gathering the ingredients, perfecting the spell, re-wording and editing edits I've re-edited ten thousand times,' Max thought as he finished ensuring eachh rune was empowered and active. 'I've re-drawn the magic array alone countless times. Everything must be perfect for the innovation tonight.
'But first….'.
Max went inside the small house — a two-story manse made of yellowstone, greystone and oakwood with an almost gothic, uniquely Potterverse feel to it. Around the perimeter of the manse was an ivy-lined, grey-stoned fence.
[Reference Image].
It is a manse so nice Max figured he could just create replicas of it across any world he goes to, as it even has a portal chamber — A place he could link across realities to.
Of course, he built it himself — Well, with magic, but this was the world of Harry Potter — Albeit, roughly 60 years before Harry Potter was even born, but Potterverse nonetheless. Everything here was built with magic.
Max had separated his upgraded wand and even brought a few others from entirely different realities along for the ride.
Max looked down at the 7 wands resting around him on the floor — The Elder Wand. The Keeper's Wand. The Fairy Godmother's wand from the Disney universe. Weather Wizard's wand — Pre-Flashpoint version from the comics. Max Russo's wand from Wizards of Waverly Place. The Family Wand, also from Wizards of Waverly Place. And, finally, the seventh wand — An originally Max-made 3 weeks after arriving in this universe.
This new wand was made of Alder, Holly and Whomping Willow woods, with a core made from the fang of a direwolf, the heartstring of a dragon, the fang of a horned serpent, the tear of a phoenix, unicorn blood, the tailhairs of a unicorn, eyeball veins of a centaur, phoenix feathers, the venom glands of a basilisk, thunderbird feathers, thunderbird blood and mermaid scales from the tails of Sirens and Selkies — All bound, merged and conceptually balanced by a drop of Max's blood.
It is single-handedly the most powerful wand in the Potterverse, greater even than the Elder Wand. Its various cores/traits of magical power make the wand itself a Cosmic Singularity-Class artifact on its own, bringing with it a handful of automatic and passive abilities, such as:
Conceptual Toxification by way of the basilisk venom glands and Whomping Willow wood. Any offense-intended spell cast from the wand carries a passive corrosive taint that zaps at the strength of any target.
Siren's Lure amplifies the natural psychic abilities of its wielder to boundless levels. Prophetic Visions while wielding this wand are severely clarified as if seeing them through 4K vision. And intuition levels are also freely amplified while wielded.
Cyclonic Diversion allows the wielder to possess a natural affinity to water, darkness and thunderstorms, thanks to the Selkie/Siren scales and thunderbird blood.
The effects of Siren's Lure are further amplified by Fatal Precog, thanks to the Centaur eyeball veins and Unicorn tailhairs. The wand had a natural fatality sense ability that allowed it to twitch or vibrate before automatically generating a kinetic shield around its wielder.
Counter-Curse Immunity allowed it to automatically dissolve any hex, curse or space-time distortions targeted at its wielder, and dissolve them back into raw, harmless energy that it can then harness to feed itself, growing in strength and power with no true ceiling. This was thanks to the unicorn blood/tailhairs and phoenix feathers.
Max's own blood not only automatically bound it to him, but it was a key ingredient of allowing it to scale so high in power, thanks to his transconceptual nature.
"A powerful wand... fit for a most powerful warlock...." Max smirked to himself, looking at the six other wands. "Now, what happens when I merge it into…?"
Each of the wands floated before Max, and Max felt giddy, as, in a blinding white light that caused a thunderstorm to completely engulf the skies of the wizarding world, the wands merged — causing a pulse of pure, chaotic power to expel from the cataclysmic collision. "This is…," Max grinned even harder somehow, as the wind picked up and, outside, thunder rumbled. Wizards and witches all over the wizarding world gawked and pointed at the darkened skies in curiosity and surprise.
The more skillful individuals seem to look in the direction of Max's manse, yet all they could even perceive were green fields.
The storm lasted hours, and by the time it died down and the wand was fully merged, the moon was beaming visible over the dusking night skies. Stars were visibly blessing the world with their presences, despite the sudden creation of a wand so dreadful, Max already knew its nexus vorti alone had attracted attention — specifically, the divine kind.
'Any god — sleeping, alive or dead must've felt that nexus vortex,' Max grinned like a mad-man, as he beheld his creation: A wand with interlacing triarchial design of wood, etched into with 3 blue gemstones and aura so unbelievably dreadful, reality around it quaked. 'But who cares what these gods of this world felt. They can't find me, not even if they had a transcendental level god behind them....'
[Reference Image].
Max paused, his face faltering briefly as he tilted his head in thought. Then, as if his sudden pause hadn't even happened, his chaotic grin returned, as if a kid inside a castle full of candy.
"My wand has been upgraded! Maybe I should upgrade my sword next? I did mentally copy every sword technique present in the minds of every swordmaster on Earth — here and back home, let alone the ones from the people and the souls of both my personal dimension and of the Hell layer I assimilated from Cade," Max pondered. "In terms of skill, I am not bad, but maybe I should travel to a couple anime worlds next?" Max pondered. Then his eyes widened in a child-like glee that was becoming more common for him. "Maybe I should create a magic staff next… Like Maleficent or Gandolf or, like, Aaravos? Those are some cool stuff, too, so all in good time, I guess."
Max looked at the late evening moon, and his grin sharpenned.
"It is time.... time, to perform the ritual," he pulled out a time turner from the suitcase, a vial of Demiguise blood, the heart of a dead time god and a conceptual replica of the deathly hollows.
"After today, every soul with even an inch of magic in this universe will hold a tether to me, allowing me to metaphysically link with their power on a transconceptual level at will. Every soul who has ever lived, is living and will live across the Potterverse multiverse will never know that their power, their knowledge, their wisdom, experience and collective magic output would be mine. They won't be affected. It is a discreet invocation — Even the gods won't notice it.
"But my power will exponentially skyrocket."
'With this,' Max smirked. 'My journey truly begins. My metamorphosis dawns.'
And, with that thought, Max began chanting quietly but clearly. He briefly wondered what the others were doing, but shut the concern from his thoughts immediately for he knew the truth: His next move will dictate his future — And he could not let a single stray thought ruin his way to the apex of magic itself.
Meanwhile, back home on Earth, in the Vampire Diaries Universe, Max's warlock clone, Maxon, had diligently working on the tasks Max had left for him to complete while he was away.
Maxon utilized the private dimension's summoning array to summon various tools, artifacts and treasures that would be considered so far above average, it wasn't a contest — And this was days ago.
Currently, Maxon had just finished two separate achievements — Three, if you count a personal project of his he had successfully seeded.
In his right palm was a vial of Kol's blood, super charged by liquefied Nest's Crystals and three more liquefied Red Hearts — Both treasures from the My Vampire System Universe, and integrated with the blood of Phyre (full power) from the Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2 videogame. An unholy concoction that, by Maxon's predictions, make him the very concept of vampire, of blood, of darkness — Of Death by apex predator standards. An absolute abstract entity who would embody these concepts in the sense that no other like him has ever existed before.
Something above universes in a way that was, for lack of a better word, eternal. Inevitable. Indomitably definite and absolutely alarming.
'The issue isn't the power,' Maxon thought, briefly frowning. 'It's what comes with it. He will become aware of his original fate... I imagine Max knows this... Yet he still wants me to go through with this?'
Maxon shifted his attention to the serum in his other hand — A blue serum with Kai's blood as base.
'In addition to Max's upgrade he gave Kai before he left, he wants Kai Parker upgraded even more with this unruly abominatious brew? Its like he's begging his two favorite men to become aware of the narrative — Their original fates.'
This one possessed Comics Mon-El blood as well as blood from Klarion The Witch Boy, Circe The Immortal Amazonian witch, John Constantine, and the Wizard Shazam — All DC characters, yet all are powerhouses in and of themselves, and with their blood, their compacted memories and how-to's for their skills and abilities.
Both vials have been enhanced with my weaker version of the Rune of Enhancement, but injecting them would most definitely make them both aware...' Maxon walked to where the two men were already talking to each other — something about a bet, Maxon wasn't really paying attention. 'But this came directly from Maximus, so who am I to question his orders?'
Maxon walked up to the two surprised men, handing them their vials. "Drink up. Try not to lose yourselves to it."
Even as he walked away, Maxon knew. In his efforts to make his lovers powerful enough to face what was coming, he may have forgotten that they are all of them, petty, cruel and, most of all, fast to detect a slight and vindictive enough to chase the one responsible for it.
And there weren't many slights that said fuck you quite like screwing with fate itself…