Awake And Alive (Harry Potter/DxD/ Nasuverse elements)

[Zephyr_Fauchelevent]

Awake And Alive


Chapter 1
​

The one and only disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction and the answer to my very own challenge of the same title. I make no money with this. Harry Potter belongs to J.K Rowling. High School DxD belongs to Ichiei Ishibumi and the contributions from the Fate Franchise belong to the TYPE-MOON company. I am only playing in their sandboxes. This story might or might not have explicit sexual content down the line. I haven't come to a decision yet. Reader's discretion is still advised, just in case. Also I will not write the various accents, the readers will just have to use their imagination for it. Also, this story will be beta'ed by my good friend DalkonCledwin. Thank you once again for accepting to help me with this endeavour.


Battles were always chaotic. It was a fact of life. There was always too much going on in a battle for anyone to absorb it all in one go. Now witches and wizards were generally used to the unusual. Magic, for all their efforts to quantify and understand it, would always present its practitioners with some sort of surprise. So it would be understandable that magical battles were bound to be just a bit more chaotic than those without magic. But for even the most blasé of wizards, seeing a young man getting up again after having been hit point blank by a Killing Curse would be mind boggling. Magic could do many wondrous things, but bringing the dead back to life wasn't supposed to be possible. And yet, Harry James Potter had once again defied all expectations of normality. Not only did he get up again, but he had somehow gotten his hands on a sword in that interval. He was now using it more or less effectively against Death Eaters, Snatchers and other dark minions gathered from just about every type of Dark Creature imaginable.

What his audience didn't know was that Harry had some rather interesting conversations while he was in limbo. He was of two minds about Dumbledore's decision to manipulate his life. But he would have to think more about it later. Time was not his ally at the moment. It was the second conversation he had that was much more important. During it, he had learned that there was way more to the supernatural world than Witches and Wizards and the various magical creatures under their dubious care. There were other Human magic users, Angels, Fallen Angels, Devils, greater Dragons, Yokais and so many other beings out there in the wider world.

But most importantly, the Pagan Gods written about in history books were very real and many of them were still alive and very active. It turned out that Harry was the current incarnation of the Irish Deity known as Manannan Mac Lir and soon enough, they would be united as one. Of course, Harry didn't have full access to all the strength and powers of the god in question just yet. The condition of his body wouldn't let him use that much power without breaking down in the first place. But a few had been unlocked and were now freely available to him since the Horcrux he had unknowingly housed was now purged from his being.

Already, there were some changes to his previous worldview. Before he would have fought to incapacitate (Broken bones in strategic and specific positions used to count as «incapacitating» in his book) but now, he was fighting to kill. The Death Eaters had brought war and death to Hogwarts' doorstep, it was only right to answer them in kind. A rabid dog had to be put down for the safety of the public after all. Manannan's memories were helping him to wield the sword he had conjured once he had gotten back his borrowed wand, but it was clear to him that he was horribly out of shape. The Horcrux Hunt and their low rations had taken a toll on his body and while he was rather active beforehand with Quidditch and his yearly death defying stunts, he had zero physical combat training. Witches and Wizards of this age had gotten lazy. Wanting this fucking battle to be over as quickly as possible, Harry magically amplified his voice and shouted so everyone could hear him

«Don't let them push you back! Keep Fighting! If you can't kill them, a few strategically broken bones will put them out of the fight! No Stunners! No Full Body-Binds! They came here to kill us! Fight for your lives! For our future!»

Harry's rallying cry did it's job. While the defenders were now pushing back the invaders with much more ferocity and righteous anger than before, the newly awakened deity decided to even the odds for the defenders' side. Seemingly as fast as lightning, he freed Hagrid from his bonds and used a fallen log as material to transfigure a large and intimidating war hammer for his friend. Harry and Hagrid stared at each other for what seemed to be an eternity but in fact was only a few seconds, then the usually gentle half-giant grimly nodded his head and leapt into the fray, howling a blood freezing war cry and brandishing his new weapon over his head.

Hogwarts was his home and he would put his life on the line to protect it and the children under his care! He would not let Tom and his cronies bully him into submission! No more! Grawp, recognizing his older brother's voice and the intentions behind it, roared his own war cry and attacked the remaining enemy giants with even more ferocity than before. What the smaller giant lacked in strength, he more than made up for in sheer ingenuity. His brother had taught him many things these last few years. Little by little, the defenders were pushing the tide of darkness back. And when Voldemort himself came back into the fray, Harry went to meet him head on after bifurcating an Acromantula that came a bit too close for his confort. The sword he had in hand wasn't Fragarach, but it would have to do for now since he was in a pinch. He would have to think on how to call it to him at a later time.

Soon enough, Harry and Voldemort were trading spells and sword blows at a rather frightening speed. It was like everything around them had stopped existing. Only their sworn enemy was worthy of their attention at the current time. For a time it seemed they were fighting on an equal level. But for all that Riddle knew the basics of sword fighting, it clearly wasn't one of his strong points. Harry could have likely finished things up much quicker had he been in a better physical shape. And by the mix of hatred and fear he could see in the eyes of the monster who took his family from him, the Dark Lord was seeing the same thing and couldn't help but believe it. Then Voldemort made a mistake that left him wide open, by trying to fall back to the Unforgivable curses. There were much more efficient ways to kill or to wound someone than high powered spells that took critical time to cast. It would be Riddle's very last mistake.

«Avada… ACK!»

Harry had lost no time in cutting off the hand Voldemort held his wand in before pulling it to him with a quick and silent summoning charm. The last of the Potters caught it easily with his Seeker reflexes. Not caring much right now about what the wand actually was, Harry was quick to use it alongside his borrowed one to blast his nemesis back against a tree. There was no time to lose. He couldn't afford to make Voldemort suffer like how Mac Lir would have wanted. If he didn't end it here and now, he would likely regret it for the rest of his life. Seeing as his conjured sword had expired, Harry was about to conjure or transfigure another one when a memory coming from his previous life came to the forefront of his mind. In perfect Gaeilge, which was rather strange mind you since Harry had never spoken that language before today, he said out loud

«Tar chugam, a Fragarach!*»

From out of nowhere appeared another sword in Harry's hands. But this one was on a whole other calibre than the one he had previously conjured. It was a hand-and-a-half sword with the blade a gleaming silver colour. The hilt was rather worn down, what with the faded colour and the various scratches. There was even one prong pointing upwards and another one pointing downwards. All in all the sword didn't look like anything special, but there was an unmistakable quality about the sword which made everyone nearby feel rather uneasy simply by being in the presence of this weapon. Harry would have wanted to say something, anything, but he simply couldn't take the chance. So before anything else could happen, he took a swing with Mac Lir's sword, and in one shot, decapitated Voldemort. There had been absolutely no resistance, the sword cut through the Dark Lord's neck like a hot knife through butter!

There was a very furious and anguished scream that made Harry look away from his deed toward the voice's owner. Ah, it seemed that Bellatrix wasn't happy about the death of her master. No matter. She would join him soon enough in death. Both Harry and Mac Lir were not all that inclined to spare the lives of many of the Death Eaters. Lucius and Draco would live. He owed that much to Narcissa. Whether her son and husband escaped a sentence in Azkaban when everything was over would not be his problem. Justice wasn't Mac Lir's department. But already there were so many deaths on both sides, it was such a waste of life. But this was war. Seeing that «dear» Bella was still too far away from him to be a threat just yet, Harry decided that it was time to cut the grass under the Death Eaters' feet. With a swift movement, he bent down to take hold of Voldemort's severed head and marched towards what was left of the enemy front.

One by one, the remaining Death Eaters, the Snatchers and anyone left alive still fighting for the Dark Lord came to halt. One by one, they fell on their knees, faces agape at the sheer impossibility that had shattered their worldview, letting their wands clatter uselessly on the ground. Except two that is. Bellatrix Lestrange was now rushing to him with murder in her eyes, screaming and brandishing wand and knife both like the insane woman she was. Fenrir Greyback was also on his way, only to be cut in half by a double cutting curse, courtesy of Neville and Ron. Seeing the madwoman approaching, he said if only to himself after letting the severed head of Tom Riddle fall to the ground

«Well time to make an example...»

Suddenly, there was an intense pressure emanating from the young man while his emerald green eyes started to glow like they were illuminated from the inside by headlights. It was felt by all but none more so than Bellatrix. The kin slayer of the Black family was quickly overwhelmed by the sheer power of her dear master's murderer. She collapsed on her hands and knees, panting erratically. As Harry approached Bella at an easy pace, she made multiple valiant attempts to get up, but she ultimately failed each time. There were now numerous, enormous beads of sweat running down her body and it took all her willpower to not disgrace herself further by soiling herself. How was it possible for a filthy half-blood like Potter to have more power than her beloved Lord and that old codger Dumbledore combined? It was simply impossible! Then his voice, loud and clear enough to be heard by everyone nearby, brought her out of her mental fugue once he was surplombing her.

«In the name of Manannan of the House of Lir, First of his Name, King of Tír na nÓg, Lord of Capes, and Protector of the British Islands, I, Harry of the House of Potter, Lord of the House of Black and Potter, and Warden of Hogwarts, sentence you to die.»

Then Harry swung Fragarach with both hands this time and Bellatrix Lestrange lost her head, just like her precious master. Harry managed to formally execute five more Death Eaters before he was stopped by Professor Flitwick. Not wanting to cause more strife among the defenders, Harry agreed to leave the rest to a Judiciary panel. From there, it was a new sort of chaos. The defenders had to tend to not only their wounded and their dead but also those of the other side. Somebody had to also take charge of the prisoners. There was still so much to do to put their community back to right. The Ministry had to be reclaimed and restaffed, it was simply too much for Britain to do this alone. Missives were sent to the ICW Headquarters and to neighboring countries, asking for help. Harry's new powers had helped prevent a few tragedies, but he couldn't save them all. Fred Weasley would survive but would need extensive physiotherapy once healed if he ever wanted to walk again. Nymphadora Tonks would not leave her son an orphan, but the price to be paid for this miracle had been steep. She had lost her husband in the Battle of Hogwarts and due to her wounds, she would no longer be able to bear children. Little Teddy would be an only child.

It was much too late for too many people though. Colin Creevey, Lavender Brown, Remus Lupin, so many bright lights extinguished so soon. While everyone was doing everything they could to put things to right, Harry was taking the necessary time to heal. He declined Mrs. Weasley's offer to live at the Burrow though. He needed his independence to sort through the memories of Manannan Mac Lir and to train the powers he had access to at the moment. The true supernatural world was a dog eat dog kind of place after all. If he showed an ounce of weakness, he would be eaten alive, figuratively speaking, by the gods of other pantheons or by the remnants of the Fomorians. There was a silver lining though. The way he had executed Bellatrix and her five fellow Death Eaters on the battlefield had been an old but still legal way to do the deed. Back when the Death penalty was still enforced physically by lawfully apointed executioners rather than using Dementors, said executioner(s) would seemingly recite similar phrases before taking action. So even when the laws of the previous administrations would be restored, he would not suffer any legal consequences.

But Harry was getting rather antsy. He had a plan as to who to ask for help in getting himself back to shape and mastering his new divine abilities. He could only hope that the price she would ask for when granting him such a kindness wouldn't be too steep. But there was always so much to do even in repairing the castle that after each day, he could only barely last through his evening meal before going to wash himself and then crashing in a bed somewhere. On one hand, he needed to leave so he could take back Mac Lir's duties, but on the other, he still had responsibilities he could not eschew as Harry. Once he was truly a god once more, he would be able to divide his essence and be in multiple places at one time, but he couldn't do that just yet, not without the adequate training. He was still amazed that his best friends believed him when he explained everything to them in private. They had absolutely no proof that he was Manannan Mac Lir reborn and he couldn't really play with the abilities relating to the Man of the Sea's duty as the Ferryman of the Dead.

It was also his friends who gave him the needed push to leave discreetly and find his own way.

«Go, mate. It's our turn to right things up. You can't always take the entire Wizarding World's burdens on your back, Harry. You-Know-Who is dead for good this time, you're no longer the only one who can help around here.»

Of course, Hermione had to add her own two cents as well.

«Go, be free. But don't forget to write and visit from time to time. Deity or not, I will be very cross with you if you forget about us.»

Both Ron and Harry chuckled warmly at that. After a group hug, Harry went to fetch what little possessions he had, including the Elder Wand before eclipsing himself via numerous secret passages. He would leave the Wand on the Other Side since he had already used it to repair his own Holly and Phoenix Feather Wand. This way it would never tempt anyone ever again. Then he made his way towards where they disembarked from the boats prior to the Welcoming Feast for the school's new class of first years. Once at the end of the docks, Harry crouched down and put his hand in the water before closing his eyes and concentrating for a few minutes. Gathering what little divine energy he could access, he then sent a pulse down the water before speaking in Gaeilge

«Sguaba Tuinne, le feiceáil!**»

Once Harry removed his hand from the water, a magic circle of golden light with a stylized fish for the sigil appeared on top of the water. And seemingly not caring about the limited space, the Coracle of Manannan Mac Lir slowly emerged from the circle. It was quite big, enough to seat at least twenty people comfortably and something told him that it could change to suit the user's needs. The hull was painted a brilliant silvery white colour and there was Mac Lir's emblem of the stylised fish in gold on each side. The coracle seemed to be also inlaid with mother-of-pearl all over. And to add the cherry on top, since it was a divine vehicle, it didn't obey the laws of physics. The coracle was clearly too big for the small secluded wharf, but at the same time it was floating there like there was no problem.

Deciding to stop wondering how magic could give physics the middle finger without retaliation, Harry secured his belongings on board before letting Mac Lir's memories guide him. Once he sat down on the bench near the middle, he only had to will it for his coracle to answer. Once a bubble of divine magic appeared to seal the open top of the embarcation, Harry willed it to dive. It didn't matter that the water was not deep enough, Sguaba Tuinne was a divine construct, it defied the laws of physics in a similar manner to the chariots of the Greek gods. Soon enough Harry had Sguaba Tuinne dive deep into the Black Lake, knowing instinctively that he needed some space before attempting to teleport from one body of water to another for the first time in what felt like forever.

Harry knew he couldn't do that by himself just yet, but his coracle could. Harry jumped from many lochs and rivers on the way before safely arriving in Gruinard Bay, on the western side of Scotland. To be certain that he wasn't seen, he used the mist of Féth Fíada to conceal himself from muggles. He might be a godling now, but he had no interest in breaking the Statute of Secrecy. He had no need for that kind of headache. He had for his destination the Isle of Skye. He could have entered the Land of Shadows from anywhere else really, but felt that it was better to be closer to where his hopefully future trainer had resided centuries ago. The powers of the Ferryman were literally at his fingertips. But he had also gained Mac Lir's deep love for the sea, so taking the scenic way wasn't bothering him at all.

Harry was about halfway there when something else suddenly nagged at his subconscious. He paused his coracle in the middle of the bay and opened his senses to the world, just like the memories of Mac Lir had shown him. A few moments later, he reduced the range of his senses to the previous level and nodded to himself. There were quite a few souls waiting for their ferry to the Other Side. He would do his duty as the Ferryman for the Dead for a while before going to petition the woman who could whip him back into shape. He was not afraid. No, he wasn't. That was his affirmation, and he was sticking to it. Anyone who said the contrary were liars and heretics.

xXx
​

Elsewhere around the world, many higher beings, such as the various deities and higher level dragons could sense that there was much more activity in the corner of the globe once ruled by the various Celtic tribes than usual in past centuries. In fact, the Tuatha Dé Danann had been even more quiet and shut-in than usual since the Wizards all over the globe decided to hide the existence of anything magical from regular mortals and enforce the idea as a worldwide law in the latter parts of the XVII century. So when Harry retrieved a bunch of wayward souls to ferry them to the Other Side, many of the deities aligned with the domain of Death felt it clearly. But after each trip, the feeling became less and less. It seemed that it was either a new deity who took the job of one who had faded and was getting used to his new powers or it was a god who had been sleeping, and had most likely just awakened, meaning that the deity was currently shaking off the rust of ages, as the expression went.

Nobody else decided to bother to go check things out, but one. Morrigan knew the truth, or at least part of it. She even had a third theory on what was currently going on. Perhaps it was a new demigod who had been rewarded with a trip in his father's coracle? Because she could definitely feel that it truly was the original Sguaba Tuinne and not one of the replicas Manannan sometimes gifted to his demigod offspring over the centuries. Call her curious, but she would get to the bottom of this mystery. So when she felt who could be the Man of the Sea come back from the Otherworld, she decided to pay him a little visit. Contrary to some other gods, she hadn't decided to take a «vacation» by sending her soul into the cycle of rebirth. When she felt his coracle pass nearby, she took the form of a raven then took off from the cliffs she had been resting on a moment ago. It took a bit of doing what with having the wind against her, but she managed to approach the divine construct. Morrigan was a bit surprised by the lack of resistance when she passed through the dome shaped barrier and landed on a bench in front of the captain of the ship, but it could be a point toward all three theories being discussed by various pantheons.

She would never admit it to anyone, but seeing the young man jump when she cawed out loud had rather tickled her funny bone. At first glance, he wasn't at all similar to Manannan's favourite looks. But physical looks on a god could be quite tricky. Shapeshifting was a common power among them after all. But there was also something else about him. There was power in the lad. True power at that. It might be a bit weak and more than likely full of rust at the moment, but it was growing at a nice rate. Morrigan was brought out of her musings when she felt the coracle immobilize itself in the middle of the bay. The young man looked at her without fear but kept his distance all the same. Then he spoke to her

«Now, who might you be? You are a beautiful bird though but I know you're no ordinary raven. Are you an animagus perhaps? I didn't think regular witches and wizards could see and pass through the Féth fíada mist though. Could you take back your human shape please? It would be easier for the conversation.»

When the bird indulged him and changed into a beautiful woman, Harry was quite surprised. She wasn't dressed like Muggles or like any of the Pureblood witches he had seen. It was a beautiful strapless, black as a moonless night dress, which gave a deep view of the woman's most impressive cleavage. Which he forced himself to not look at anymore lest he be the target of her fury. She had strange laced gloves on her hands and her skin was pale as the moon. There seemed to still be raven's feathers among the beautiful dark cascade of hair falling on her back. But what alerted him that this woman was no regular witch, was not the dagger or the five branches star medallion she had on her left biceps. It was the tattoos on her face and the spark of great power in her dark eyes. It was only Mac Lir's memories that prevented him from making a mistake that could have cost him his life. After all, rare were those who insulted the Phantom Queen and lived to tell the tale. Ering on the side of safety, Harry swallowed noisily and said politely after a bit of hesitation

«Huh...It is nice to meet you, Lady Morrigan. What can I do for you?»

At full power, Mannanan Mac Lir could have taken Morrigan in a fight and would have had great chances of winning. As both Mac Lir and Harry were right now though, she would crush them like an insect should he make the mistake to provoke her into a fight. Mortal magic was nothing more than an annoyance for a goddess such as her. Better be on his best behaviour and to not tempt Fate.

Morrigan's lips quirked into a smile and her voice, smooth and smoky and seductive purred

«Well, well, well, it seems that someone taught you good manners, boy. But tell me, are you Manannan Mac Lir's demigod son or his successor perhaps? You do know that you are currently using the Man of the Sea's own divine chariot right? I hope for your sake that you were not foolish enough to steal it.»

Harry answered soon after, knowing that answering truthfully the questions asked by the mercurial goddess in front of him was the best thing he could do right now.

«I am the current reincarnation of Manannan Mac Lir. His soul and mine are in the process of fusing together. Some of his powers are now available to me. In this life, I was born as Harry Potter, my lady.»

A quirked eyebrow got her a more in depth explanation. He wanted to live and stay in one piece, thank you very much. He was just a godling right now, he wasn't raring to fight a war goddess such as Morrigan. The Horcrux in his scar was gone, he did not currently possess a way to survive death for a third time.

Morrigan contemplated for a short while the information she received from this little mage. So that was why the Man of the Sea had been so silent since those pesky Wizards decided to hide magic and the supernatural from the regular mortals. He had been bored enough to go on an extended vacation. And now he was in the process of coming back. How quaint. She had satisfied her curiosity so her business here was done. But just before she left, she told him

«Do say hello to dear Scáthach for me, will you? And I want you to do your very best to get back to your ancient level of strength. If you don't, I will be very displeased with you, boy. But if you do manage it… Well, I might give you a reward. Here's a little taste.»

If only to mess with him a little, she forcefully grabbed his head and plonked his face in her cleavage. She wasn't ashamed to be desirable and to flaunt her curves. Morrigan knew she was beautiful and her body was one of her main weapons. She enjoyed his reactions; the muffled noises of both fear and surprise he made before releasing him after a minute or two. She permitted herself a little amused chuckle at his flushed face, then gave him a peck on his cheek because he was rather cute, before she took her raven form once more and flew away, cawing loudly.

xXx
​

Harry watched her go until he could no longer see her before letting go of the breath he hadn't even known he was holding. This was his very first meeting with a goddess and damn, just her presence had shaken him something fierce and she had been in a good mood! Regardless, it was time to take the bull by the horns and go get that training. Mentally ordering Sguaba Tuinne to sail anew he opened himself up to the powers of the Ferryman and kept in mind his destination. The Land of Shadows. It was like the coracle was engulfed in a wave of primordial darkness for a few seconds before he exited in what was truly a haunted world. Even the river he was currently sailing on was full of death. It was not a place where ordinary mortals could survive. Once ashore, Harry dismissed his coracle and it quickly vanished in a shower of golden lights.

Since Mac Lir had only ever heard of that place, even if he had been acquainted with Scáthach in the past and never had a need to come here before, his memories couldn't help Harry with his current situation. Since it was better to be safe than be sorry, he called Fragarach to him. He was very surprised to see that the sword had changed. The ravages of time seemed to have been erased. The pommel was now whole, the hilt was also now a gleaming bronze and the guard was no longer broken. The blade also seemed to be glowing from an internal light. After a few minutes of walking, the newly minted godling saw a massive castle still far away. Harry couldn't help but let out an impressed whistle. While it wasn't looking as magical as Hogwarts, this castle was still really something to look at.

The road from his starting point near the dead river all the way to the castle was very long and he had to cut more hostile ghosts than he could ever count with the help of Fragarach or his magic. Even if he was using the latter sparingly, not wanting to risk magical exhaustion in such an inhospitable land. Even as untrained as he currently was, being a godling had already augmented Harry's current physical capabilities. Having also recovered from his year on the run in the last few months with the help of nutritious and filling meals and the gracious help of Madam Pomfrey had also helped him greatly. All those factors made it so that he wouldn't get tired as quickly as before. He was about to enter the inner courtyard when he felt the hair behind his neck stand up. There was something, more than likely someone, very powerful nearby. But before Harry could do anything else, a feminine voice addressed him in a tongue he didn't know but could somehow understand like it was the Queen's English.

«Well, would you look at that? It has been a very long time since I had visitors. Even more so for unexpected ones. You will turn around, slowly, and look me in the eyes. No sudden movements if you wish to keep living.»

It was a command Harry knew better than to disobey. Slowly, without rushing he turned around to come face to face with the very woman he had come to petition for help. And of course being a teenage male, he couldn't help himself from staring for a few seconds. Scáthach was an extremely beautiful woman. She had long purple hair and red eyes, and wore a full-body outfit that highlighted her curvaceous body, with metallic shoulder pads. In her right hand, she held a blood red spear that radiated an immense amount of power and blood lust. Then red eyes and green eyes met. She was shorter than him but he knew it meant nothing. She could kick his ass from one end of this land to the other without breaking a sweat and they both knew it.

Just as much as he had devoured her, she was quick to analyze him. The sword he held was a divine weapon, she could feel the power emanating from it. She dismissed his strange accoutrement as irrelevant. The boy, for he was one, even if he was now old enough to shave, was a dichotomy of human and divine. A demigod perhaps? By his elaborated stick, she could hazard a guess that he was a magic user, even if his focus was a bit strange. But in looking into his eyes, she could see the untapped potential he had. Just like her favourite student, all those centuries ago. But there was something else… on his forehead, there was a fading scar in the form of a rune which she wasn't certain of the meaning. But it was a mark of destiny. Done with her investigation, she asked of him

«What brings you to my domain? And exactly how have you managed to enter this land?»

Harry answered her quickly and honestly

«I will answer your second question first. I am the current reincarnation of Manannan Mac Lir and I have access to his powers as the Ferryman of the Dead. I used those in combination with his coracle to come here with the goal of meeting you. Both his soul and mine are slowly merging and I need help to regain the strength we had long ago. In time we will be one and the same.»

Scáthach observed her visitor and after thinking about it for a short while, she answered

«And what do I get out of this if I agree to train you? You can't get something for nothing, that's not how the world works, boy. You should be old enough to know that already.»

Harry shrugged his shoulders and answered her

«I'm open to negotiations. Oh, before I forget! Lady Morrigan says hello. »

Scáthach only hesitated for a short time. She didn't have anything to lose really. After more than two thousand years, she was really bored. At least putting the boy through his paces would be entertaining. An unholy gleam illuminated her red eyes and a dangerous smile crossed her lips. Then she told him

«I reserve the right to ask for payment at a later time. Now, boy, pay attention, for this is your very first lesson. Dodge!»

She then swung Gáe Bolg Alternative at him in an half hearted attempt to skewer him. His yelp of surprised fear brought another smile to her lips. At least, it wouldn't be as boring with someone else to tor- hum train. yes, training. But there was something new. This new kid hadn't dodged by jumping right or left or even backward, he had spun slightly on his heels only to vanish in a sound of displaced air and reappeared far behind her with the same noise. Hum, short distance teleportation? That was new. And interesting. Very interesting. But it would not save him for long.


Translations from Irish Gaelic to English:
*Come to me, Fragarach!
**Sguaba Tuinne, appear!

 

[Zephyr_Fauchelevent]

Awake And Alive



Chapter 2
​

Notes: This chapter will include at least two or three time-skips. I don't think I need to write the entire time Harry spent training in the Land of Shadows. Not if I want to get to the good stuff in time though… Such as the debut of the new Manannan Mac Lir in the true supernatural world. Let's face it, the Wizarding communities and their people are rather xenophobic by nature, so it stands to reason that they wouldn't try to explore what else could be out there. A quick note: if my readers want to see the picture from which I drew the inspiration for the divine armour of Manannan Mac Lir, they should go look for the illustration named Dangerous Waters by Sir Pigeonz on Artstation. For the picture of the dress that I described Scáthach wearing, they should contact me in private for the link to the picture. Now I think I rambled enough. Let's get this show on the road!

---

Harry knew he was normally great under pressure. His most astounding achievements in life came during do or die moments. He also learned better by doing than when studying. But Scáthach had him beat on every level. It had only taken her a few times of observing him using Apparition for his teacher to understand the mechanics behind the spell. Now each time he tried to get away to use magic on her, she would close down on him too fast for him to be able do anything and she would smack him around until he was able to escape or more likely, until she allowed him to slip away. The one time he tried to use Fragarach against her, she literally laughed in his face (She had a beautiful laugh) and with one twirl of her spear, removed it from his hand and sent it far away. A swordsman, Harry clearly was not. Well, at least not yet.

Scáthach was truly a warrior without peer, since she had immediately understood his dependence on his wand to cast anything worthwhile. He had more bruises on the other side of his body from sheltering his all too fragile wooden focus from her attacks. That was how his first week went. But each time he fell, he always got up and went back into the fray. He needed to be stronger. He needed to learn how to use Manannan's powers at their best. The training was harsh and his teacher relentless, but that was exactly what he needed. You couldn't change the world without getting your hands dirty after all. Week after week, he was learning more, adapting faster to any situation.

He still couldn't cast anything worth a damn without his wand, but at least he had a few less bruises than before. Well, until the Witch of Dun Scaith upped the level once more that is. Calisthenics were something that was on every day's agenda. His trainer also gave him a rest day once every week. It was all good to repeatedly put him through the wringer, but he was still partially mortal. So Harry truly needed some time to rest and heal if he didn't want to crumble. It was the harshest workout he ever had, but he knew with certainty that it would give him the results he had been looking for in the end.

But there was some unexpected good news! The day after his fourth rest day, Scáthach had thrown him all the way down into the river since they were training on the hill nearby that day. It was after he foolishly tried to combine the disarming charm and his physical strength with the goal of depriving her of her spear. It seemed that some other powers of Manannan had been unlocked, since he quickly found out he could breathe underwater and move like he was still on land. He could still swim normally if he willed it though, which was a relief. He quickly found out that he could also manipulate and shape water to his will, so he decided to use it with the goal to surprise his teacher. While still underwater, Harry willed several tendrils into existence and then commanded them to lash out with the firm intent to grab her.

Scáthach managed to deflect quite a few, even with the help of her two spears! But in the end, Harry only had to get lucky once. And when he did, the tendrils of water that had caught her pulled the immortal woman into the drink as well. He knew better than to mention the girlish yelp she let out when he managed to grab her though. Harry was many things, but suicidal was not one of those. When they were both back on dry land though, she more than likely decided to make him pay for the affront since he was beaten black and blue in no time at all. He did have a really hard time fighting back, not only because she was much better than him on every front, but the water had accentuated her skin tight clothing… It was very distracting… Oh well, no pain no gain as the old proverb said… the wonderful sight had made the bruises he received for his stunt more than worth it though...

Later that night around the campfire outside of the castle's walls, Scáthach had to admit if only to herself that the boy had truly taken her by surprise with his water tendrils. It had taken much longer for Sétanta to be able to catch her off guard like her new student just did. Perhaps she should ask the name of her new pupil? He wasn't the Man of the Sea, not yet. So she would not call him by his divine name. Not until he was worthy of it. But his accomplishments today were worth using his mortal name when addressing him.

«Boy, tell me, what is your name?»

Harry, who was chewing some cooked meat, swallowed his bite before answering

«It's taken you this long to ask? And I can't believe I forgot to introduce myself to begin with. Ugh, I'm an idiot. My name is Harry Potter.»

«Then I will remember your name and use it. I will not call you by your divine name until you've earned it. You may call me «teacher» or by my own name, Scáthach, if you prefer.»

Earning his teacher's respect was an important milestone for Harry. But it was just one of many to come.

At first Harry had feared that there would be nothing to eat in the Land of Shadows, forcing him to do regular food supply trips back into the living world. He could have done it without any problem, crossing the borders in between the various dimensions was surprisingly easy for him, but it would have seriously cut into his training time. But while the lands immediately around Dun Scaith Castle were dead, further away from the fortress the wilds were prospering. There was no shortage of prey animals. But they were all bigger than what could be found in the regular world. So it was part of the challenge to hunt and kill such beasts. Seriously, he even saw a male Irish Elk bigger than three adult polar bears put together! At first, Harry hunted exclusively with the aid of his magic. But as his skills and abilities progressed, Scáthach asked him to use what she was pounding into his head and body to do so. Of course, the young man had come back more than once empty-handed due to his lack of experience. But it didn't discourage him. Day after day he gained more experience and got better.

After two long and hazardous years, the last Potter had become a very good hunter. He had a very good motivation, because if he didn't bring back any sort of game or fish, he wouldn't have enough to eat. He was also getting better as a warrior. He still wasn't able to pull a definite win against his teacher, but she had to use more and more of her true power and skills to put him down. He was also managing to force a few draws here and there by now. His body was now conditioned to Scáthach's very strict standards, so he only had to maintain what he now had rather than start again from scratch. These days they were working on his swordsmanship and on what little wandless magic he could do. While the former was progressing by leaps and bounds, the latter was stalling. It seemed that almost a decade of using a matched focus to channel his arcane power had atrophied whatever it was that permitted him to use magic without it when he was a young boy.

Frankly, Harry was at his wits end on how to remove the crutch without snapping his wand in two. Perhaps he could try to fuse it with Fragarach and see what happens? It was food for thought.

xXx
​

Meanwhile, back in the World of the Living, the Goddess Morrigan had been quite busy. While young Harry was training to regain the ancient strength of Manannan Mac Lir in the Land of Shadows, she made her rounds to awaken her fellow Tuatha Dé. The Man of the Sea wasn't the High King of their pantheon, but he was a major deity for a reason. His power was quite considerable. His return would be a signalled to their brethren that it was time to step back into the world once more. It was such a shame that Yahweh was no longer among them, for he would likely find the prank they were about to pull on modern society quite amusing. Once her rounds had been made, she decided to go look for more information about the boy who was now sharing his body and soul with the Man of the Sea. Her chosen destination? Hogwarts Castle. The boy was clearly a wizard, so what better place than his Alma Mater to look for information concerning his life? Soon enough she was letting herself into the private parlour of Minerva McGonagall.

The Morrigan would not admit this to anyone, but seeing the look of surprise on the face of the elderly woman when she noticed the goddess sitting there was worth her weight in gold. The quarters were very well protected, but a goddess such as herself couldn't be hindered by mortal magic. Not without very specific runic inscriptions that the Tuatha Dé had done their very best to erase from history. Before the Head of Gryffindor House could work herself into a rant, the Morrigan conjured a tea set with a simple wave from her right hand and waved the Cat animagus into the seat in front of her. Swallowing her retort, the witch did as she was bade. This woman was clearly more than she appeared. It would be an interesting and enlightening conversation on both sides.

«I am the Goddess Morrigan of the Tuatha Dé Danann. I encountered your former student, young Harry Potter, a few days ago. He piqued my curiosity, so I came here to learn more about him.»

While Minerva was tempted to bombard the goddess with questions about Harry's well-being and location, she was not fool enough to provoke such a mercurial deity. So she swallowed both her pride and her questions. She would give that boy an earful for vanishing on her without prior notice and for abandoning his duties to Wizarding Britain when she saw him next. Seriously, even his father had not been as troublesome while he was a student! And James actually went out of his way to look for trouble, contrary to his son! She took a breath, a sip of her tea then started to explain what she knew about one of her favourite students.

Both women couldn't help but snort in fond exasperation after Minerva told a few stories of Harry's misadventures in these hallowed halls. It was clear that both Harry and Mac Lir shared the same relationship with trouble, they didn't need to go looking for it, it found them all on its own. It seemed that young Harry's fate had been quite tumultuous even before the awakening of his past life. A child of prophecy was always in the thick of things, whether they liked it or not. Headmistress McGonagall and The Morrigan discussed the boy for a few more hours before the goddess took her leave. She simply dissolved into a flock of ravens after getting up from the comfortable chair she had been sitting on and left through the now open window.

xXx
​

Down in the region of the Underworld governed and inhabited by the Fallen Angels, Azazel, Governor General of the Grigori was currently dealing with the bane of every leader the world over; paperwork. At other times he might have blown it all off and gone and done something more interesting, like researching Sacred Gears or even skirt chasing, but he was waiting for a particular report today. His spies had told him that there was something unusual going on in the United Kingdom and Ireland and his lead agent stationed there was due back for a report at any moment. Azazel was a tall man appearing to be in his twenties with an average build, black hair, golden bangs and a black goatee. He was wondering what was happening for the tone of the message to be that hurried. Did one of those shut-in wizards get chosen to be the vessel for a Sacred Gear? It was rare, but it did happen occasionally.

The Three Biblical Factions were a bit divided on how to deal with the Wizarding Enclaves. While he wasn't certain how Heaven dealt with them in the modern era, Azazel had instructed his people to leave them alone as much as possible. What resources the Grigori could direct towards interacting with them outside the various Gringotts branches around the globe weren't worth the headache of shattering their superiority complex. He knew for fact that some of the Pillar Houses went fishing in their magical academies for Pact Magicians, but it wasn't usually a subject he brought up when speaking with Sirzechs Lucifer.

A silver coloured magic circle flared on the floor in front of his desk, bringing him out of his musings as his agent appeared within the room. Once the light was gone, the agent stood at attention like a soldier and in precise military form, gave a salute, and then began speaking.

«Lord Azazel, I bring… Not ill news per see, but rather odd news all the same. The goddess Morrigan's presence was detected at the start of the week in Scotland, my Lord. Once near Gruinard Bay, then later, all the way up at Hogwarts Castle; and that's not all, Sir. My team is quite adamant that they felt the presence of Manannan Mac Lir himself going back and forth in between the Land of the Dead and the Land of the Living. We also felt other powers associated with the various Celtic Gods stirring these last few weeks. We can't be one hundred percent certain, but everything seems to point towards a resurgence of the Tuatha Dé Danann, my Lord.»

Azazel had seen and done so many things in his many years of life, even before falling from his Father's grace. He was used to dealing with the many quirks of the various pagan gods he interacted with in the past. But no other pantheon was as battle and curse happy as the Tuatha Dé. Their resurgence would mean that interesting things, in the Chinese curse sense of the words, were bound to happen. Great, just what they needed, having to deal with those crazies again. Much to the great surprise of the Fallen Scout, Azazel began banging his head repeatedly on his desk. It really wasn't Azazel's day, that was for sure. And he would have to call Michael about this too, ugh. After all, their deceased Father's Faith had more or less stolen the worshippers of the Tuatha Dé. Heaven had to be ready in case one of those loonies decided to go pick a fight with the Heavenly Host on a whim. Don't get him wrong, even on opposite sides of the conflict, Azazel still had a lot of respect for their Father's Strongest Soldier, but he could only take so much of his goody two shoes ways outside of a battlefield.

After he finished bashing his skull against his desk, the Governor General tiredly dismissed his scout and told his secretary that he didn't want to be bothered unless the world was about to end. He then locked and warded his door against intruders and eavesdroppers, and once assured of his privacy, began channelling the necessary power to create a violet magic circle in the palm of his hand. With a very careful application of his power, Azazel held the supernatural equivalent of the cell phone in the palm of his hand. Bringing it to his ear, he waited until his estranged brother answered. Strangely, it wasn't Michael who picked up the phone; judging by the female voice he could guess that it was Gabriel. Well, it could have been Sariel, but she wasn't as «peppy» for lack of a better term.

«Moshi, Moshi?! Gabriel speaking, who may I ask is calling?»

Azazel sighed a bit and then said

«Hello Gabriel, it's Azazel. I would like to speak with Michael, could you put him on the line please?»

«Azazel?! Oh my gosh! It's so nice to hear your voice again! It's been ages! How are you?!»

Even after everything that happened, Azazel could never stay angry with the bubbly Seraph for very long. She was the kind of person you just simply couldn't hate, no matter how hard you tried. A genuine smile made its way across his face. He really did miss her voice.

«I'm doing just fine, and you? You are keeping yourself away from trouble, I hope?»

Their little discussion continued for a short while until Azazel heard an amused sounding Michael speaking from nearby.

«Dear sister, could you hand me the phone please? I would like to speak with our wayward brother.».

There was some fumbling and some other background noises before Michael's voice was clear over the phone

«It has been a while since we last talked… brother.»

Azazel knew that Michael didn't really hold a grudge per see, but some wounds, even somewhat healed by time, ran really deep. Some things had been said on both sides of the battlefield and couldn't be taken back no matter how much they tried. Things would never go back to how they were before his Fall from grace. Azazel and Michael had clashed spear to spear many times during the Great War, doing their absolute best to kill or at the very least maim each other. But they both had to rise above those grievances, for the Greater Good of their people.

«Listen, Michael, I know that things will never go back the way they were before… Well, you know. But I'm calling you about something very important.»

Even if the line was supposedly secure, Azazel would not be dropping what was basically State secrets willy nilly. You never know who could hear them after all. After a short pause to assure himself that his estranged older brother was actually listening, he continued,

«I'll be blunt, Michael. My people just gave me a report that basically says that the Tuatha Dé Danann are most likely in the process of making a come-back. They first felt the goddess Morrigan's particular presence on the western side of Scotland before she went eastward toward that magical academy the British Wizards built during the middle ages. Then they felt an aura that they swear belonged to Manannan Mac Lir, making repeated trips between the Land of the Living and the Dead. And a few days after, my people felt many of the other Tuatha Dé Danann begin interacting with the world once more.»

For the first time since the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem Witch Trials, Azazel heard his older brother utter a long string of nasty curse words. Then, if that wasn't surreal enough already, he heard what was more than likely Gabriel emitting a loud gasp of horror and/or indignation and the sound of flesh hitting flesh hard followed promptly by a sharp masculine exclamation of pain. Then to top it off, Gabriel began to seriously scold their older brother for his colourful language. If the situation wasn't so dire, Azazel would have given himself a case of the hiccups by laughing at his sister's antics. The Mighty Archangel Michael, God's Strongest Soldier, the Leader of Heaven, being scolded by their baby sister like he was a misbehaving school boy. This would have been priceless blackmail material in any other situation. After a good ten minutes of hearing Michael's repeated apologies and Gabriel's furious scolding, the Governor General spoke up once again

«Gabriel, can you stop scolding him, or at least, save it for another time? I'd like to finish talking to our brother before somebody tries to barge into my office, asking for help and claiming it's an emergency when it definitely won't meet the requirement I set.»

There was some grumbling at the Fallen Angel's request, but the most powerful woman in Heaven relented. When both men were sure she was no longer nearby, they collectively let out a sigh of relief. Gabriel was a true force of nature when her ire was provoked.

Michael, the ever gracious, thanked his estranged brother for his life-saving intervention.

«Thank you for your help, Azazel. Gabriel does not anger easily, but when her ire is provoked...»

Michael didn't finish the sentence, but there was no need. Both men knew that it was unwise to arouse their younger sister's temper.

«Yeah, trust me, I understand. Penemue can be a real pain too when she loses her temper. Listen, for all of our differences, I don't want Heaven to be plunged in chaos so it's why I called you to give you a heads up. Mac Lir was known to be a rather chill guy back in the day, so perhaps we can bring him to a negotiation table, but the Morrigan is well known for being unpredictable; and don't get me started on the Fomorians.»

«I truly appreciate the heads up, Azazel. I will make the necessary arrangements to shore up the defences of Heaven's territories just in case. I will even go reinforce the Gates of Heaven myself. By the way, speaking of negotiations, have you made any headway in convincing the Seventy-Two Pillars to join us for a peace summit?»

Azazel frowned a bit, not that his siblings could see him since he didn't use the «videochat» mode when he first called Heaven, but answered all the same

«Sirzechs and Serafall are all for it, Ajuka too, even if he's not the most enthusiastic fella when deprived of his labs. Falbium is almost convinced and most likely stalling because he wants to laze around some more, but the Council of Elders are taking their time to come to a decision. Sadly, I think it will take a few more years before we can have something more substantial than the current Ceasefire.»

Both leaders continued to talk for a while before Azazel hung up the «phone». The conversation with his estranged older brother had not been as painful as he first thought it would be. Maybe there was some true hope for things to get better between Heaven and the Grigori after all. Azazel wondered if he should also share the info about the Tuatha Dé with Sirzechs or perhaps Serafall, but after a few minutes of consideration, he decided not to. That particular pantheon's period of activities had been before the time of the current Great Devil Kings after all. They likely wouldn't know what to do with the information.

xXx
​

It had now been a grand total of five years since Harry's arrival in the Land of Shadows and his progress since that time had been astronomical. The differences between how he had been when he arrived and his current state were like night and day. He could now fight on par with Scáthach at her very best and win against her half of the time. But still, his divine spark had yet to ignite and it was starting to worry him. Mac Lir's memories were now almost entirely integrated with his own and more of his former life's powers were showing up each day. But he still wasn't a god. Also there had been a very interesting developpement between Scáthach and him that he didn't see coming. These last few days, he won more spars than he lost and that got him some interesting looks from the woman in question. But the decisive change arrived when he came back from his most recent hunt with the cut and salted parts of a deer and absentmindedly offered some to his teacher. There was a strange light passing through her ruby eyes before she decided with a soft voice

«Bring the meat up to the castle's kitchens, please. Tonight we will be eating and sleeping indoors. Oh and take a bath before dinner this evening, will you? You smell.»

Her answer was a bit strange but not worrisome, they usually camped outside unless it was raining, but the sky was clear. Knowing not to look a gifted horse in the mouth, Harry accepted the request easily. It was always nice to sleep in a proper bed with a good mattress instead of on a simple bedroll. And taking a hot bath sounded really nice too. Dun Scaith Castle was comfortable enough. While Scáthach didn't have servants in the conventional sense, her castle was staffed with spirits she had beaten into submission during the thousands of years she spent in the Land of Shadows. And they had learned to be quite good at their job to avoid displeasing their mistress.

After a piping hot and relaxing bath, Harry dressed himself in simple jeans and a shirt that he had to resize with the help of magic. When he eventually returned to the World of the Living, he would have to go on an overdue shopping trip. During his time here he had hit another growth spurt, stopping at a very respectable two metres tall, his body now featured broad shoulders and well muscled arms. His hair was much messier than usual since the only way he could cut it was with the help of his wand or with Fragarach, but he made do. It was the same for when he needed to shave like he did today before his bath. When he was ready, he made his way down to the banquet hall. He didn't know why they were eating on such a large table since it was only the two of them, but Scáthach was from a much different time period than him, so what was normal for her could be archaic for him. He was free to think what he wanted, but he wasn't going to speak his thoughts out loud.

Once arrived at destination, he saw that Scáthach wasn't there yet. Being polite, he waited for the Lady of the castle before taking a seat. He didn't have to wait long before he both sensed her presence and heard her coming. And what he saw left him entirely speechless. Her long, lustrous magenta hair was adorned with a modified tiara. On the right side near her temple, there was a beautiful barrette with a purple flower and a gold ornament hanging from it. She had some sort of choker made of fabric around her throat along with an amethyst as a pendant. Her deep purple dress was held by the back of the neck and left her shoulders and arms bare, covering her forearms up to the wrists. All in all she was extremely gorgeous. He had never seen such beauty before.

It was when Scáthach spoke with an amused tone of voice that his brain rebooted

«Close your mouth Harry, lest you swallow some flies. Should I assume that you like my dress?»

Harry was quick to answer back

«Do I like it? The word «like» is not strong enough to explain what I feel when I look at that dress right now. I love it, Scáthach! You are truly beyond gorgeous!»

Her answer to his compliment was a slightly bigger smile crossing her lips and with a simple movement of the head toward the banquet hall, she took the lead. And knowing full well that Harry was watching her, she deliberately added more sway to her hips as she walked away. His muffled groan made her smile with satisfaction, not that he could see it of course. She still had it. The meal was very good and the wine too. It was the first time Harry ever tasted wine. His relatives would never have given him access to any, and at school, it wasn't something easily obtainable since it was much more costly than Butterbeer or even Firewhiskey. The conversation between friends was light and interesting. The lovely woman in front of him was telling him a few anecdotes about some of her former students and in turn Harry told her about some of his misadventures during his magical education.

Things turned to the surreal when he clearly felt Scáthach's dainty looking foot starting to caress his knee then going slowly but surely toward the inside of his thigh. Now, Harry wasn't a complete novice when it came to women. It seemed that the horrid reputation his relatives gave him by spreading all those lies finally did him a favour since he had a few hook-ups with a few teenage girls living around Little Whinging in his summer after Fifth year, before Dumbledore came by to pick him up. It turns out that they liked «bad boys». Of course, he never breathed a word of that to his friends. Hermione would have had his hide and Ron would never leave him alone until he told him all the juicy details.

So while he wasn't all that good at picking up subtle signals, this was an incredibly obvious one that even a blind man couldn't miss. He looked at her, clearly seeing her hooded gaze and her inviting smile. So he wasn't imagining things. When he got up, she did the same and sashayed hypnotically towards him. Slowly, sensually, she brought her deceptively powerful arms around his neck and after she got on her tiptoes, Harry closed the gap between them by putting his own arms around her waist and leaning down enough to give her a kiss.

A simple kiss turned into two, then five, then tongues got involved and hands started to roam on both sides. After she started grinding herself against him, Harry lost all rational thought. Using his superior physical strength, the godling took Scáthach in his arms bridal style and sprinted towards the great staircase leading to the private quarters. While he was taking two or three steps at a time, his would-be lover was busying herself by undoing the buttons of his shirt with her remarkably dexterous fingers, while also peppering his skin with tantalizing kisses. Since Scáthach's bedroom was closer than his own, Harry headed there. He had been there a few times, when she had needed to patch him up after a few more extreme duels over the years. Once he opened the door with one hand, he closed it again once inside with a foot, before walking toward his teacher's bed. There was no hesitation, no second guessing, no gentlemanly attempt to make them slow down to take their time.

Harry sat Scáthach down on the foot of the bed and soon they were making out once more. His hands were far from chaste, exploring all she had to offer over her clothes and even where he could get under them. Then she growled something that sounded suspiciously like

«Clothes...off!»

And from there, clothes both masculine and feminine, ended up all over the floor and the new lovers joined together in a dance as old as time.

xXx
​

A few days later, Scáthach and Harry were fighting. But this time it was far different than usual. They were both doing their very best to kill each other. Not that there had been any problems in their fledgling relationship so far, but it seemed that nothing more than a true life or death situation would trigger Mac Lir's divine spark. So in the hope of once more becoming a god, Harry Potter fought once again for his very life. Harry was using Fragarach in one hand and his wand in the other, still unable to use precise casting without a focus, while Scáthach was using both of her spears against him. So far they were evenly matched even if she had the advantage of range. After one very close call and needing breathing room, Harry cast a silent and motionless banishing charm at her, which caught Scáthach in the solar plexus. There were no words exchanged, both warriors knowing that it was a do or die situation.

Both fighters took a quick breather, before launching themselves back into the fray once more with nothing more than loud war cries. Fragarach and Gáe Bolg Alternative clashed together, causing sparks to appear. Harry had to apparate blindly to not get skewered by the second spear that was much too close for him to deflect. They didn't stop to take a breather, there was no time. Harry wanted to, no he needed to become a god once more. Something deep in his gut told him that he would need that power sooner rather than later. The World would need Manannan Mac Lir once more and he couldn't be found wanting.

Both Harry and Scáthach fought each other for hours with no clear end in sight. In the heat of battle, Harry almost snarled the two words, the six syllables, he had swore to himself to never utter. The incantation for the spell that had made him an orphan. The one and only Killing Curse. That lack of attention for self recrimination nearly cost him everything, but at the same time, it gave him exactly what he was looking for. Scáthach's voice and her sheer killing intent snapped him out of his temporary funk, but it was too late for him.

« Here I go. Stab and penetrate...»

One of her spears was illuminated with a bloody red aura of energy and was sent his way at ludicrous speed, zigzagging at impossible angles. He was somehow able to get Fragarach up in time to block it, but the momentum gained with the speed was too much and broke through his guard. The spear found its way through his right shoulder joint and pinned him to the cliffside, making him drop his wand. While it hurted like a bitch, Harry didn't have time to do anything about it since his teacher/lover and now perhaps his executioner wasn't done. Her voice resonated once again

«Thrust and drill!»

The other spear illuminated itself from within like the first one did and with a shout of

«Gáe Bolg Alternative!»

Scáthach launched it toward him. That second spear also travelled at ludicrous speed and was honing for his heart. But even if everything seemed hopeless, Harry wasn't about to give up. But before he could try to bring to bear what little wandless magic he could do, his lover's second spear was inches away from his heart. But before it could make contact, there was suddenly a loud gong like sound echoing from everywhere and nowhere. Then an intense golden light exploded from Harry's pinned form, encasing him entirely in less than a second. The light expelled the first spear that ran him through and healed his wounds in seconds all the while blocking the second spear before it could reach him.

Then a powerful force slammed into the Witch of Dun Scaith, threatening to bring her to her knees. It had been over two thousand years since someone made her feel so little! When the light died down, Harry looked entirely different. Clad in gold and black armour, a closed helmet shaped like a stylised fish, tassels of blue cloth that reminded her of seafoam flying in the wind, a stylised belt buckle and Fragarach in the form of a golden sword that had a similar shape to a Dao. Harry, no, Mannanan Mac Lir walked toward his previous foe but stopped near her without attacking. Both lovers/adversaries stared at each other for long minutes, before the pressure on the immortal woman let up. She smirked at her pupil, before kneeling willingly and declaring out loud

«Hail, Manannan Mac Lir, Lord of Capes, King of Tír na nÓg, God of the Sea and Ferryman of the Dead! Hail!»

Harry stayed quiet for one more minute before dismissing his armour. There were no major physical changes upon his person, except that his emerald green eyes seemed to be more luminous than before. It was like they could be filled with light at a moment's notice. And the remains of his famous lightning bolt scar were gone. The glasses he had been wearing when he came here in the first place were also missing, the more he accessed Mac Lir's powers, the more his deficient eyesight corrected itself. Once he was near enough he didn't say anything but he grabbed Scáthach by the waist and hoisted her onto his shoulder. Too stunned to say anything, she only started to laugh when he began making his way back toward Dun Scaith Castle without putting her down. They didn't need to speak, she could see his intentions clear as day.

«Randy as a god, huh...»

Scáthach and Harry would hardly leave her bed chambers for the next three days.

Spoiler: Scathach in a dress

Spoiler: Manannan's Divine Armor

 

[Chermo]

Dodge

Click to shrink...

This right here, is going to cause him divine PTSD down the line, Scáthach is not s gentle trainer

 

[Zephyr_Fauchelevent]

Indeed. XD Oh, I edited the last chapter to add Manannan's divine armor.

 

[Zephyr_Fauchelevent]

Awake And Alive



Chapter 3
​

After a fourth day of staying shut inside Scáthach's bed chambers, both lovers were getting a bit restless. Which was why Harry didn't try anything when she decided to get up once she recovered from her latest climax. She was stretching, entirely uncaring about her nudity. He had already seen and sampled everything she had to offer anyway and the nudity taboo wasn't much of a thing before the rise of Christianity. He was trying to find out what would come next when her soft voice snapped him out of his mental fugue.

«That was great, but I really need a bath...»

Indeed she did need one, what with the fresh trail that his seed was currently making down her thighs, slowly oozing out from her womanhood and the visible sheen of sweat on her skin. Such a sight made him remember a very important detail. They hadn't used any sort of protection beforehand ever since they became intimate. Before he could address that particular problem, Scáthach continued

«And so do you. My entire chambers reek of sex. A job for the servants I suppose. I was wondering Harry, when do you plan to go back to the World of the Living? You don't intend to stay forever in this desolate place, no?»

When Harry found his voice again, and boy was it weird to have a serious discussion with your stark naked lover a few minutes after the latest round of sex, he answered her

«I'm all for a bath, a good meal and going outside to do something else. Don't get me wrong Dear, making love with you is fantastic, but even my newly enhanced stamina can only take so much. Or In other words, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.»

He finished with a little laugh that was reciprocated.by his lover

Harry sat down on the edge of the bed also uncaring of his own nudity. He made his neck and a few of his muscles crick then said what was on his mind. Scáthach didn't like to beat around the bush, so it was better be direct when speaking to her

«I don't have any definite plans for now. My whole «plan» was to come here and ask you to train me in hope of becoming a god once more. And now my goal is accomplished, thanks to you Scáthach. But I would really like it if you were to accompany me when I leave the Land of Shadows behind.»

Scáthach's head turned toward him rather quickly when she heard exactly what he said. And if he hadn't gotten to really know the powerful woman in these last five years, the intensity of her gaze and her silence would have most likely made him squirm by now. Quietly, she padded toward him and once in front of her lover she asked

«Harry, be frank with me. Have you been intentionally courting me with the goal to eventually gain access to my bed for some meaningless sex or are you looking instead for a serious relationship?»

Seeing the affronted look on his face, she raised her hands in a placating manner and continued

«Peace, my friend. I have gotten to know you well enough by now to be reasonably certain that you aren't a womanizer. But you have to remember, I come from a much different time period than yours. A time where many men were often nothing more than feral beasts and took what they wanted from women without a care about consent. Like I said a tad bit earlier, I know you aren't like that. But I still need to know what you wish to gain from our current arrangement.»

Once he was assured that she wasn't intentionally comparing him to some deadbeat skirt-chaser who only saw women as prizes to be won, it took all of his mental faculties to stare at her face and not her now very enticing naked breasts since she had just crossed her arms under them while waiting for his answer. And said answer was quick to come once he got his head out of the gutter

«I'm not exactly certain if I am actually in love with you just yet, but I do know that I truly care for you a great deal. I really want something serious between us. I hadn't originally intended to court you, but now that I somehow did it, I don't regret it at all. I really want you to come with me when I leave, because I would truly miss your presence in my life. However, the decision is ultimately yours and I will respect it no matter what your choice will be.»

Once his peace was said, he waited for her answer. After that, he would then broach the rather thorny subject of birth control. He really should have taken adequate precautions from the beginning, he should have known that it would be hard to think clearly during the heat of the moment. There was silence for a minute or two even if they felt like they were stretching forever. Then she answered him with a small loving smile

«This is really an interesting coincidence. I was about to mention that my price for training you was to be twofold. One, you would bring me back to the Living World with you when you leave.»

Scáthach then entered Harry's personal space and took his chin between her deceptively strong fingers to make sure she had his full attention with a very serious tone of voice

«And for the second part of my price. I know for fact that most if not all of the gods have a tendency of philandering around. But so long as we are together, Harry Potter, you. Are. Mine. I can and will confiscate your manhood if I find you in bed with another woman that I did not approve of beforehand.»

Seeing his look of utter incomprehension, she released his chin and let out a little amused laugh before telling him with a little secretive smile which keep baffling men everywhere, the very one that women worldwide always had the secret

«Harry, true power like yours, the hard earned kind, is like an aphrodisiac for most supernatural women. It's why I'm making my claim known right now. I'll likely be quite busy in the near future beating back possible suitresses with the help of my spears even without you straying occasionally.»

Harry took a moment to digest that nugget of information before simply shrugging his shoulders. He then said firmly, but with a smile on his face

«Well Scáthach, your price will be met. Taking you with me when I leave is hardly a chore and you will find out that I'm not like the other gods out there. I have absolutely zero intention of becoming a womanizer. I'm far from being an expert in romantic relationships, but I firmly believe in being faithful to my partner. Of course I also expect said partner to be faithful in return, it's only fair I think.»

That answer got him a pleased hum and a smile of approval from his lover then a loving kiss on the lips. Wanting to have some clothing on for the next part of the conversation, Harry fished out his underwear from the floor and put them on after she released him from the kiss.

She was about to call for the servants to prepare them a bath, to change her bed and to air her chambers when he spoke again

«Scáthach, please wait a second, there's something else we need to speak about.»

Still naked, the warrior woman turned around once more and looked at her lover with an inquisitive glance and a slight tilt of the head. She was clearly waiting for him to speak his mind

«It's a bit awkward, but well... we didn't use protection when we had sex. We need to, I don't know? Talk... about it?»

Harry was clearly out of his element. His previous sexual encounters had all been safe ones. When the first girl to show an interest in him in that way had told him of her plans, Harry had rushed to the closest store that sold condoms to buy himself a box. Of course, he had lacked the needed muggle money, but after hearing his plight, Dudley had spotted him easily. That reminded him, he would need to make a detour by Privet Drive to repay the money owed to his cousin...

Scáthach looked at Harry with clear incomprehension in her ruby red eyes. Then seeing as she wasn't understanding what he was talking about, Harry tried a few other words

«You know, birth control? To prevent unwanted pregnancies?»

Scáthach's incomprehensive look first turned into a pensive frown, then into a slightly guarded look before answering her lover

«Harry, that particular subject is one that is considered as women's affairs only. It's not something we womenfolk usually discuss with men. I'll answer you just this once since we don't come from the same time period and you seem to be genuinely worried about it. But you must first give me your word of honour that you won't bring up the subject again until you wish to ask me to either be your wife and/or to bear your children.»

Harry willingly gave his word to his sexy lady friend, thus Scáthach gave him a quick summary

«I brewed a special elixir for myself with the help of very specific herbs that I grow in my private garden. Once drunk, this elixir makes it so that conception is impossible for a certain amount of time. You can trust me, I took my precautions before seducing you. We won't accidentally create a new life. Once back in the Living World, I will either buy the elixirs needed from an apothecary or brew them myself if I find the right ingredients when my current dose wears off. I do not intend to stay celibate now that we are together.»

And that was the end of it. If she said that she had things in hand, Harry was quite ready to trust her. God, that conversation had been awkward...

Finally, Scáthach and Harry stayed two more days in the Land of Shadows to prepare themselves for their reemergence. Harry had to retrieve quite a few of his personal effects that had somehow gotten all over the castle and Scáthach had to make sure her servants would keep her castle in good order and pack what she wanted to bring along. She wasn't certain when or if she would ever return to the Land of Shadows, but it was better to be prepared just in case. Once everything they both needed was loaded in Harry's coracle, the young man turned it around on the dead river, coming back the way he first got here..

Harry let Sguaba Tuinne sail for about ten to fifteen minutes before calling on his powers as the Ferryman of the Dead. Just like when he first came in five years ago, there was a brief moment of primordial darkness, before they reappeared in the Land of the Living. Sadly for them, today it was dark and stormy out there. Gruinard Bay was quite agitated, but with a thought, a dome of divine magic covered the top of the godly embarcation, protecting its occupants from the nasty weather. While Harry could have calmed the water of the bay, he decided not too. His coracle could sail any waters and the sea was his Domain. So a little bit of stormy weather would just be a refreshing change from a calm sea.

Harry then decided to head south after hoisting all the sails and while he did that, he opened himself to the world, looking for everything he had missed during his absence. Ron and the rest of the Weasleys were fine. Fred could now walk by himself with the help of a cane, and he and his twin's business was booming. Strangely, Ron and Hermione didn't make it as a couple. He had been certain they had been made for each other. Shows what he knew. Talking about his best female friend, he couldn't find her anywhere in Ireland or the British Islands. He knew she was alive and well, but she was most likely abroad. It was the same for Luna. She simply wasn't in his perception range. He had difficulty pinpointing Neville's exact location. It was like something was trying to evade his divine sight, but was only partially successful.

«Hum, it might be something worth investigating later on.»

He could feel Tonks just fine with a young man that he guessed was her son Teddy and also a woman who was probably her mother. He would have to make a visit sooner rather than later. He had been named as Teddy's godfather, but he hadn't taken responsibility for it. But better late than never he guessed. Fleur and Bill were still going strong. They also had a little girl. Harry could feel her young lifeforce. Charlie was likely back in Roumania since he couldn't find him anywhere in his Domain. He would likely have to ask the Weasley family if he could take time out of work for a visit from a family friend. Hogwarts was still standing and was stronger than ever! He could feel the castle's powerful magic radiating all the way from here! Headmistress McGonagall must have reworked the Castle's wards. Maybe he should go visit incognito and give them another boost? It was food for thought.

He would make his rounds in the coming days, to catch up with his friends and to see what else he had to do. That was one of his flaws, he never stopped to truly plan ahead. He had survived for so long that he never learned how to simply live. A large part of him had expected to never escape from Voldemort's life threatening shadow. He would have to work on that. And he would also have to get Scáthach up to speed with the modern era. Ancient Gaelic was no longer the common language among these parts. Could he bless her with the needed knowledge instead?

Something was telling him that it wouldn't work and that he was worrying for nothing. With but a thought, his coracle took them from Gruinard Bay all the way to the Thames' mouth. From there they would make landfall in London in due time. Harry was wondering if number twelve Grimmauld Place was habitable, if not he would just rent them a suite in a hotel. He wasn't in the mood to turn around and go to either Avalon or Tír na nÓg. Merlin was always a pain to deal with even on a good day and he wasn't prepared in the least to deal with whatever he would find in his Kingdom. The memories of his past life were strangely lacking about that subject. Maybe a last prank from the trickster side of Mac Lir… The dick… For all he knew, Fand was still alive and was waiting for her husband to come back home to her. Now that would be really awkward…

XxX
​

Once they made it to land, Harry discretely conjured an umbrella large enough for the both of them and let Feth Fiada's mist form to cover them. During their evening walk hand in hand, he answered each and every question his lover had about everything with patience. It was a bit amusing and surreal to be the teacher for once after being the student for half a decade. Soon enough they were in front of #12 Grimmauld Place. Once inside, Harry had a nice surprise in seeing that the house was spotless. It seems that someone had taken good care of the house in his prolonged absence. And the portrait of Walburga Black had been removed. Now that was one hell of a blessing. From there, it was child's play to get themselves settled. There was some confusion since Scáthach seemingly expected them to have separate bedrooms and only sharing a bed when either of them wished to be intimate, but Harry told her frankly with a soft loving voice

«I enjoy sleeping with you in my arms. We don't need to have sex all the time, cuddling is good too. Stay with me, please.»

She favoured him with a beautiful smile and shook her head with a bit of incredulity. Will wonders never cease? A man not afraid to show his emotions and his vulnerability in front of a woman. He really was a keeper. She settled with him in the master bedroom with no further protest. Once done and back in the kitchen, the new Lord of Capes decided to just bite the bullet and called out loud

«Kreacher?»

With a whip crack-like noise, an old House Elf suddenly appeared in the room.

Still bowed with age and with his croaking voice, he answered

«Master Harry is back! Master Harry called Kreacher?»

Their relationship had been better than it was in the beginning ever since the truth about Regulus Black's demise had come out, but Harry wasn't certain about which kind of reception he would have gotten after five long years of absence. It looks like he simply got worried for nothing. The Black's family House Elf was seemingly looking only to serve. So Harry decided to not look a gift horse in the mouth and simply said

«I am back from a long training trip, Kreacher. For the time being, I intend to live here with my lady friend, Scáthach. »

From there it didn't take long for Kreacher to be made aware of the basics. Needless to say, the old elf didn't care all that much. He was just happy to have people to serve and more work to keep him busy. He did confirm that Master Harry gave him permission to answer his lady friend's calls and after that, he vanished with another whip-crack sound but not before telling them that there would be breakfast, tea and coffee served to them the next morning.

The next morning once he was fed and watered, Harry decided to be a man about it and went to see the Tonks family. Scáthach offered to accompany him, but he declined politely, citing that he needed to take responsibility for his actions. He was the one who ditched everyone counting on him with little to no warning to go on another hairbrained quest. He now had to pay the piper so to speak. That was why he found himself, a certain amount of time later, in front of a lovely two story house near Islington. After taking a fortifying breath, the new god of the sea rang the doorbell. Soon enough a near carbon copy of Bellatrix Lestrange cracked open the door. But having been the one to execute said woman and also having been the one to sail her to her ultimate reward, he knew that she wasn't that woman.

«Good morning, and excuse me, Mrs. Tonks, but is your daughter home? I'm not sure if you remember me...»

The mature woman opened the door and waved him in before telling him with a soft voice

«You did change a bit over the last few years, but you still are rather recognisable, Mr. Potter. Please, come in. I'll fetch Dora. Teddy is currently playing upstairs.»

Harry did as he was asked and felt the hair on his arms rise once the door closed ominously behind him. He was so screwed, he just knew it. Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn and all that. Godly powers weren't going to save him this time. Well, he could likely teleport away but it was better to take his lumps now rather than later.

Nymphadora Tonks effectively had a load of things to say to him and not many of them were pretty to hear. It was only her mother's many timely interventions that saved him from being hexed to oblivion by the irate single mother. Andromeda stayed silent until her daughter accused him in tears of being the one responsible for Remus' death. Harry felt responsible for many things, both good and bad, but the casualties suffered at the Battle of Hogwarts weren't among them. He still felt guilty for a lot of things that had been out of his ability to control, but he was starting to heal and to learn how to let go. Harry had willingly walked to his death once for the sins of the British Magical World. No more. Andromeda came to his rescue just as his temper was starting to get the better of him and a rather visible glow was starting to fill his emerald green eyes.

«Now Dora, you are letting your anger speak for you. Calm down a bit, will you? Mister Potter is not responsible for the death toll of the Battle of Hogwarts. He isn't responsible for the atrocities committed by the Death Eaters in You-Know-Who's name. And no, he also wasn't responsible for Remus' death. That was Fenrir Greyback and that rabid beast has now been cut down by Misters Longbottom and Weasley, thank Merlin for small blessings.»

Once Harry had gotten his fraying temper back under his control and Dora had mastered her own emotions for the time being, she launched herself into another tirade

«Where were you for all these years? Remus named you Teddy's godfather! You were supposed to be here! You were supposed to help us raise him! But no, you buggered off somewhere else like a coward for half a decade instead of facing your responsibilities like a man should! You were supposed to be our paragon! The one the Wizarding world would look to for guidance now that Professor Dumbledore is gone. We needed you to root out the remaining Death Eaters, the Blood Purist movement and the corruption in the Ministry. You should have been here to put things to right. That was your duty as the Boy-Who-Lived!»

Once again, Andromeda tried to intervene but Harry stopped her with a raised hand. He released a bit of his aura if only to make sure to get his point across; and told the now rather shocked women with a calm tone of voice

«I admit that I should have been present in Teddy's life. I should have taken the time to come here to explain exactly why I was leaving beforehand. That I didn't do so is on me and I will take full responsibility for that. But for my so-called «duty» to the Magical World, I'm telling you right now to forget it. I have zero intention of pandering to the whims of a society that simply refuses to grow up and to learn from their mistakes. I already gave this society too much of my blood already and I refuse to give up my hard earned freedom. I killed Voldemort, the prophecy is fulfilled. The future of this society is now up to the rest of you. If you want further help, then you should just offer your prayers to the old pagan gods. Who knows, one of them might answer your pleas.»

Both women couldn't have more different reactions. While Andromeda was calm if a bit surprised about the Muggle-raised young man mentioning the old gods, her only daughter was now becoming even redder with anger. So taken by her strong emotions, Nymphadora drew her wand and put the sparkling tip right under Harry's nose and told him in a deceptively calm voice

«I think I heard you just say to me that you won't do your duty to your community, kid. Please, tell me I heard you wrong. Because if I'm right, I'll hex you to oblivion and then drag your sorry arse to Hogwarts for a little chat with Professor McGonagall. She's simply dying to see you again. She was in a right state of mind when she found out you had vanished on her without asking for permission.»

She finished in an ominous tone of voice.

Again Andromeda wanted to intervene to try to calm things down, but Harry's reaction simply baffled them both. The young man openly chuckled and said with a clear amused smile on his lips

«Tonks, I'm no longer afraid of Professor McGonagall and I'm not a kid anymore. I've fought day after day with little rest in between against someone much scarier and much more powerful than the Hogwarts Headmistress and I lived to tell the tale. Put your wand away before you get hurt will you? I didn't waste my time during the five years I was away. My so-called «duty» to the Magical world is over. And since I was already over the age of seventeen by then, I was legally an adult. I didn't need to ask anyone for permission to do anything.»

Just to prove his point after realizing that the auror wasn't about to stand down, Harry moved at astounding speed, grabbing Tonks' wand and taking it away from her. He then had the sheer gall to twirl it around his fingers like the magical focus was a simple drumstick before handing it by the handle to Andromeda. Taking advantage of the dumbfounded look on both women's faces, Harry adjusted his jacket on his shoulders and said

«Now, can we talk this out like reasonable adults or will you keep being difficult and having unreasonable expectations of me?»

In the end,Tonks listened to the voice of reason even if she grumbled a lot under her breath. Things would likely still be frosty between them for a long while, but the young mother had learned to pick her battles. As much as she wished otherwise, she no longer had legal authority over Harry. Last time she checked, there wasn't a warrant for his arrest and he had just proved that she couldn't force him to do anything at wand point. She might not be on active duty as much as she had been before she became a mother, but Tonks was no slouch in magical and nonmagical combat. She had kept in shape and restarted her physical training as soon as it was safe to do so. Her level of physical fitness and her good health had been two factors leading to surviving her quasi-fatal wounds at the Battle of Hogwarts. But now Harry was seemingly on a whole other level than her. It truly was unfair. If only she knew the entire truth… But Harry wasn't about to spill the beans to everyone and their mother.

After putting the ordeal behind them, Harry finally got to meet his godson. The young god was rather surprised to see that the tyke had inherited his mother's metamorphic gift. He made this stunning discovery when the young boy changed his appearance to mimic Harry's. While it wasn't love at first sight, Harry knew he would quickly grow attached to the little boy. The young god stayed for two more hours before he felt he had overstayed his welcome. After telling the two widows that he would still be staying at twelve Grimmauld place for the time being, he took his jacket back, since he had eventually taken it off later on during his visit and left. During his walk back, Harry felt better. It felt liberating, for a lack of a better word, to take responsibility for his own acts. He had made the mistake of cutting contact without warning and he had assumed the consequences were his own. Was this what it meant to become an adult? He really wondered.

XxX
​

The next few days Harry and Scáthach fell into a new routine of sorts. They would wake up a bit after dawn and go to the other side of the street and exercise in the deserted park. Of course, Harry was using the mists of Feth Fiada to cover anything unusual going on. After a nice workout, they would go back inside the house to shower and eat breakfast. Sometimes they would make love in the shower, a novelty for a woman coming from a very different century than her lover, but it wasn't an everyday activity. After a good breakfast, Harry would explore London and its suburbs with his lady love until lunch time. Each day they would eat in a different restaurant, sampling the cuisine from other countries.

For dinner, either Harry or Kreacher would cook something, depending who managed to get in the kitchen first. The first few days, the god and house elf almost came to blows for ownership of the culinary domain, until Scáthach cleared her throat and solved the situation

«Why don't you rotate with each other regarding who will be cooking on a particular night? That way Kreacher still feels useful and you can keep amazing me with your talents outside of the battlefield.»

After seeing their sheepish faces, she hid her face behind her hand and murmured after a deep sigh

«Ugh, men...Gods, give me patience, for if you give me strength...»

Scáthach soon found out that she greatly enjoyed sleeping her entire nights cuddled in Harry's arms. But for some reason, tonight she couldn't fall asleep, despite them having a good work-out beforehand. Harry had propositioned her for sex early in the evening, and since she was in the mood, she had said yes. Her lover could only get better with more practice; and she had truly enjoyed being with him since he had made a habit of satisfying her first before letting himself go. Now she was ruminating a bit on every thought that passed through her head.

She had never realized how much she missed a humanoid presence around her until she had the real thing at hand's reach. Now, she was dreading the possibility of this warm feeling vanishing and never coming back. The Witch of Dun Scaith didn't wish to be alone any longer. But it seems that Harry had somehow felt her inner anguish since his arm around her waist slightly tightened its grip and he deposited a few butterfly kisses in the nape of her neck which had the effect of making her shiver with renewed desire. In a voice heavy with sleep, he told her

«You think too much, Luv. I can hear the gears turning in your head. If you can't sleep, I can think of something else to do to pass the time...»

She could easily detect the implication in his voice and even if she hadn't recognized it, his wandering hands straying to erogenous places would have been a clue she wouldn't have been able to miss. They had gone to bed naked after all. Scáthach thought about it for a moment, before letting her actions speak for her. She rolled around and claimed Harry's lips with her own before straddling him. Of course, such actions made the drapes covering them fall down, exposing her in all her naked glory to his hungry gaze since he was now entirely awake. Harry would never get tired of seeing his lover in the buff.

It didn't take very long for both of their bodies to be ready for their intimate dance. Reason took a hike and only Pleasure stayed. The Queen of the Land of Shadows would be very distracted from her worries for the time being.

 

[Abhijithvc]

Is this a repost or something? I feel like I've read this before

 

[Zephyr_Fauchelevent]

I'm reposting my story here. On FF.net, I'm Gabriel Herrol and on AO3, I'm Zephyr_Fauchelevent.

 

[Zephyr_Fauchelevent]

Awake And Alive



Chapter 4
​

Three weeks into Scáthach and Harry's new routine, something or more precisely, someone, came by to disturb it. But not just anyone, the goddess Morrigan in person, was sitting in Grimmauld Place's sitting room just a bit before noon after he had just come back from a visit to Andromeda's house to see Teddy. The silent tension between his lover and the goddess was so thick that it could have been cut with a knife. Not knowing what to say to ease the tension, Harry blurted out loud the first thing that came to mind

«Whatever it is, I didn't do it!»

Surprisingly, it seemed to, if not remove the tension entirely, bring it down to a much more manageable level. Both women had a good chuckle at his words, which was something Harry took as a good sign. He didn't want a fight on his hands in the middle of the neighborhood. He knew exactly what his lover could do and his past life's memories told him that the other goddess wasn't someone to cross and take lightly. As Manannan Mac Lir, he was now quite strong and mighty, but he wasn't even in the top ten of the most powerful beings in the world. Lugh was the most powerful of the Tuatha Dé, eclipsing even their king, Dagda. That is if they were still alive. The ancient Gaelic gods weren't as unified as other pantheons. Many of his kinsmen were more inclined to do their own thing than to obey the Dadga's orders.

The dark haired deity got up and literally strutted over to him before stopping a few centimeters short of his personal bubble. With her smoky and seductive tone of voice, she then told him

«Well well well, colour me impressed. You really did it. Welcome back, Manannan. You have been greatly missed. Now, if I remember right, It seems that I had promised you a reward if you were to succeed in claiming back your ancient strength…»

At those words, the previously lessened tension came back with a vengeance. It didn't take a genius to guess what kind of reward she had in mind, what with all the signals she was sending him. But now Harry was in a bind. If he took the Morrigan on her offer, Scáthach would confiscate his manhood at the very least. It was not something he wanted to test or experience, since he knew damn well that she was able to back up her threat. But if he denied his fellow goddess, the Queen of his pantheon at that, she might take offence and make his now immortal life quite miserable. And if she was offended enough, she might even take it out on his future progeny! All in all, Harry felt that he was now stuck between a rock and a hard place. And quite frankly, Harry didn't want to go look for another woman to take to his bed. Scáthach was more than enough for him. So after bracing himself, he told his fellow deity in the most conciliatory and polite tone that he could manage

«Please, don't be offended, but I don't wish to sleep with you. I will be the first to admit that you are sinfully beautiful, but I don't want to jeopardize a possible long term relationship for a simple fling. If Scáthach and I weren't in a serious relationship, I would have taken you up on your offer in a heartbeat. But that's not the case at the moment. I simply refuse to deliberately hurt her like that.»

The Morrigan tilted her head to the side like a curious bird, observing this new incarnation of the Man of the Sea with keen eyes. Not many men could even think of refusing her and that this young man managed to do so while being so frank was impressive if somewhat vexing. But well, at least he had good taste and he was not ruled by his libido. The Witch of Dun Scaith was a warrior without peer. It wasn't dishonorable to lose such a man to her. Deciding to be gracious about it since the boy, no her fellow god, had been nothing but honest and polite, she shrugged her shoulders and answered

«Suit yourself then. Do keep me in mind for the future if you and Scáthach ever part ways.»

Then the goddess vanished as if she had never been there in the first place after offering him a last saucy wink. After making sure she was truly gone, Harry looked at his lover and, after releasing a loud and very relieved sigh, he said,

«Well, that was awkward…»

Even if Harry had wanted to say more, he would have been cut off by the fact that his lady friend suddenly decided to jump him. Being ill prepared for such a thing, Harry crashed on the floor, back first. Before he could do anything else, Scáthach had straddled him before fiercely claiming his lips with her own, after grabbing his head between her hands. After a few more happily reciprocated scorching kisses, she curled herself up in his arms, her head underneath his chin. In a tone of voice he never heard from her, low, somewhat insecure but awed all the same

« You told her «no». You refused the goddess Morrigan. For me. You turned down the chance of bedding the Phantom Queen for a prior agreement made with a mere immortal.»

Harry let one hand rise from her hips, since when she had been snogging the life out of him he had instinctively held her like that. He moved it to her hair and started to caress her long crimson tresses slowly and methodically. He has learned from experience that she loved it when he was combing it with his fingers. It always relaxed her. Then after mulling over his words, he told her

«I'm a man of my word, love. And I'm not certain that I'm the type of man to enjoy polygamy. Why would I go look elsewhere when I already have you? Like I've told the Phantom Queen earlier, I won't throw away a long term relationship for a fling that won't lead anywhere. It would be very stupid of me to do that.»

There was no more talking after that. The Witch of Dun Scaith straightened herself a bit, only to sensually remove her top, leaving her with only a lacy black bra for him to feast his eyes upon. Harry wasn't exactly sure when or how Scáthach had gotten her hands on modern lingerie, but he sure as hell wasn't complaining! Not one bit! After tossing said top somewhere else, her hands hurriedly went to his belt and Harry finally got the hint. There wouldn't be anymore talking for a good long while.

Four rounds of fantastic and breathtaking sex later, the lovers were satiated for now. They were now waiting for their very late midday meal while being only half dressed. Scáthach was only wearing Harry's shirt, which was only covering her down to mid thigh. And the young man was only wearing his boxers while trying to put on a ratty wife beater shirt. The elderly House elf had given them exasperated looks when they stumbled into the kitchen while barely dressed, but he had stopped himself from commenting. Harry was grateful for his servant's discretion, otherwise things would have been very awkward. What was he supposed to do when his lady love jumped him like that? Tell her no? He might have a near mastery over Manannan's powers by now, but dealing with a divine libido was a whole different kettle of fish!

In the end, the lovers got dressed and decided to keep exploring London and its suburbs. Harry eventually convinced his lady love to go see a movie after feeding the ducks in the ponds at Hyde Park got dull. Thankfully, Scáthach wasn't interested in watching romantic comedies, so the Man of the Sea didn't need to «suffer» through what Seamus and Dean had called «chick flicks». A good action movie was rather interesting for both of them. Harry and Scáthach kept walking randomly all over the city even after the movie ended, not caring about the fact that night was falling. They had nothing else to do and the Wizarding enclave held little interest for either of them. Sure, Harry would eventually have to face the music and go visit Gringotts to get into his account. And sooner or later, he would likely stumble upon a friendly acquaintance or an old friend. It wasn't that Harry didn't want to see them, it was just that he likely could no longer empathize with them.

He was now a deity and even having lived his previous life as a mortal, living the regular life of a middle-class worker and married man… even with the additions of a house, future children and pets, was entirely anathema to him. Before finding out that he was the reincarnation of Manannan Mac Lir, it would have likely been his dream life. But now? He wanted more from his life, much more. He might give it a try in a few decades, but now? No. Just no. He wanted to travel the world, explore new places and try new things. Maybe even have a new adventure or two. So far he hadn't felt the need to go back to his duties, but he was keeping an eye on it. Scáthach and he might eventually go see what Tír na nÓg and the various other otherworldly realms looked like in this modern era. But right now, he would have to deal with the stranger who had sat down at their table. The Celtic couple had recently stopped for a pint at a pub with a nice looking outdoor terrace.

Their intruder was a young man about their physical age, if not a bit older. But in the Supernatural world, physical age was rather misleading. He had perfectly coiffed blond hair, blue eyes and was dressed in tasty but clearly expensive clothes. And it was clear that this person wasn't human. Not with the carefully suppressed power they could feel rolling under his skin. But for all the stranger's strength compared to the mortals milling around, Harry didn't feel threatened. Deciding to take the initiative, the reborn Celtic god spoke

«Yes? Can I help you?»

There was the feeling of a subtle use of magic, something akin to any number of privacy spells or perhaps a Muggle-Repelling charm, then the well dressed stranger spoke clearly and politely, while clearly and carefully choosing his words

«Actually my good sir, I think you can. You see, my family and I are, let's say, responsible for this country's security in regards to the supernatural world. These last few weeks, we have felt the sudden awakening of several ancient and powerful… let's call them… beings, for the moment. You see, they haven't interacted with the world for a very long time and my family and I are concerned that they might… get a little bit overboard and upset the current, and very delicate, peace. I approached you and your lady friend tonight because your… energy, let's say, seems similar to those beings, and it is my sworn duty to ask you about your immediate goals.»

Deciding to be facetious since he was also a trickster god, Harry told his mysterious interlocutor, tongue in cheek

«I am afraid that I must apologize sir. But my goals, immediate or long-term, are not the business of a stranger. But, if you think there is a risk that the Statute of Secrecy will be broken, then I suggest you head over to the Ministry of Magic and speak with an employee from the Improper Use of Magic Office. After all, we are speaking about a possible breach of one of our most important international laws, no? Or maybe it's a job for the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes instead?»

The face that the as yet unnamed blue eyed blond man made was absolutely priceless and Harry would remember it for a long time to come. The guy looked like he had bitten into an exceptionally sour lemon. So whoever he was, the man in front of him must have had previous dealings with the local magical government, maybe even during the Fudge administration. He pitied the guy, really. But not enough to not make fun of him since he was wide open. All's fair in love and war and all that jazz.

Ruval Phenex had to get a grip on his fraying temper. Of all the awakened Celtic gods now running around Great Britain and Ireland, why would he stumble upon the only one trying to disguise himself as a Wizard? And the Phenex heir knew the other man in front of him was a deity. Even though the black-haired and young looking man was artfully suppressing his power, it ran on a totally different wavelength than any other beings. And once you knew exactly what to look for, it was rather easy to spot the difference for those at his level or beyond. Deciding that being subtle wasn't working and rather irritated by the wild goose chase he and his Peerage had gone through recently, the soon to be Ultimate-class Devil then went for a more direct approach. Ruval flared a bit of his power to get his point across, which had the effect of grabbing the attention of the beautiful redhead sitting near the god, before he spoke to them in a very serious tone

«I am Ruval Phenex, Heir to the House of Phenex, one of the Seventy-Two Pillars of the Underworld. I am a Devil and my House are the supernatural wardens of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. You and your paramour are currently trespassing on our territory. You will answer my questions to my entire satisfaction or the both of you will find yourself summarily expelled with no possibility of ever coming back before the night is over!»

Harry let out an exaggerated, impressed whistle at the speech/threat and the blatant show of power, which didn't do anything good for Ruval's fraying temper if the flames showing in the other man's eyes and his gritted teeth were anything to go by. But after an amused chuckle, the Man of the Sea told the pureblood Devil bluntly

«Well, if your family is now responsible for this country's security against supernatural threats, let me tell you frankly that you all did a rather shite job. Depending on when the Phenex family took the job, somebody should have stepped in when Voldemort started his campaign of terror in the late seventies. Or at least when he came back in the mid nineties. It would have saved a lot of innocent lives. I thought that the Devils were no longer what they had been before the Crusades?»

Ruval cringed visibly at hearing those specific reprimands. He had advocated loud and clear back then, to receive permission to step in during the so-called Dark Lord's periods of activity. He had been more than powerful and skilled enough to stop the warlock and his henchmen in their tracks, with minimal collateral damage. But he had been firmly denied at every turn. And acting without permission would have put his entire House into very deep trouble.

The Yondai Maous felt that to meddle directly in the affairs of Wizards had a significant chance of inciting either Heaven and/or the Grigori to do the same and it could have led to a war by proxy. The Underworld couldn't afford another large scale armed conflict at the time, not with the likes of the Old Satan Faction and other irritants still causing the occasional spot of trouble. And their society had indeed changed for the better, but not as fast or as much as many of the progressives had wished. Devils were a very long lived race after all, so it stood to reason that they would also socially evolve slowly.

Then Ruval realized that he was being distracted into a variety of other topics by his quarry and judging by his amused smile and twinkling green eyes, the deity knew exactly what he was doing and felt absolutely no shame in his actions. Ruval's first instinct was to lash out with a deliberate amount of violence and fire to redeem his wounded pride, but his reason soon beat back his initial impulsiveness. The Phenex heir knew he was no slouch in combat, but he wasn't on Lord Lucifer's level. He couldn't pick a fight with a god and hoped to have any chance of winning. And to put the final nail in the coffin on that particular idea, a fight of that level would incur a lot of collateral damage and would put the Humans under his care at great risk. Thus he did his best to not let his emotions get the better of him.

Harry let Ruval recompose himself in silence, with his amused smile not leaving his face. As amusing as it was to poke fun at the Devil in front of him, it was better to go easy on the lad. Scáthach even nudged him gently with her elbow and showed him a raised eyebrow and a tilt of the head toward their uninvited guest. That meant that she felt he had had enough fun at the Phenex's expense. He answered her with a sheepish smile and a small nod. He understood her point. But it didn't mean he had any intention of answering Ruval's questions. Oh no, it wouldn't be any fun! So with a quick application of Féth Fíada to cover their escape, Harry grabbed his lover by the waist and used the water in the air as a medium for teleportation. When Ruval managed to dispel the magical mist, his quarry was no longer in front of him, much to his frustration. It was only the fear of what his mother would do to him should she learn about it, that stopped him from using very colourful language out loud.

He sighed a bit but decided to cut his losses. He had met the god and while they hadn't spoken much, he was more or less certain that he meant no harm to the populace under the Phenex family's care. Ruval got up, adjusted his wrinkled clothes and decided to go back to his Queen, who was waiting for him nearby. Of course, the Phenex heir took care to dispel his magic around the table. It wouldn't do to make the Wizards suspicious after all. The young looking man made his way at a leisurely pace to a limousine parked nearby and once inside, his Queen asked him

«So, how did your meeting go, darling?»

Ruval let out an exhausted sigh and answered

«It could have gone better, my love, but it could have also been much worse. It was indeed a god, accompanied by a warrior woman of some sort. She was quite powerful or at the very least quite skilled. She only took a mild interest in my presence after I had flared my power to make sure the god took me seriously; but I am certain that she knew I was here the second I sat down. I think that this particular deity has been active for a much longer period than the others we met previously, since he had intimate knowledge of both modern Wizarding society and history. And he also had quite a way with words. With only a few sentences, he made me feel both angry and very shameful in quick succession. It seemed to amuse him quite a bit to have managed to get under my skin so easily.»

His Queen, a blue haired beauty, hummed a bit and then told him

«I think we should keep a careful eye on his eventual reappearance. Something tells me that we haven't seen the last of him. I'll have to do further research and see if the clues you gleaned can help us pin his identity.»

Ruval accepted her wisdom with a small hum, gave her a chaste kiss on the cheek then told their chauffeur

«To the Phenex train station, please. It's time to go home.»

Ruval was not looking forward to reporting his rather limited success to his father, but he would take his lumps like a man. Why, oh why did the gods of the Tuatha Dé Danann have to awaken after so long? Things were looking up before those nutters decided to wake up and cause trouble! At least he would likely see his sweet little sister again…It might also be a good idea to put Riser through some tortu… er… training… It might help deflate his big head a bit…

XxX
​

Scáthach and Harry rematerialized aboard Sguaba Tuinne, carefully hidden by Féth Fíada in the middle of the Irish sea. Harry loved the broader applications of what had been the Potter's Cloak of Invisibility. Once they were solid once more, Harry let out the sniggers he had swallowed back when interacting with Ruval Phenex before pulling their vanishing act. Oh it felt good to have tricked that uptight Devil like this. Even his lover allowed an amused smile to cross her lips. She wasn't a prankster, but Scáthach had to admit that getting under the skin of the Phenex whelp had been amusing.

After calming down, Harry stole a quick kiss from his beloved, who hummed in satisfaction, then sat down to enjoy the tranquil view of the starry sky. It wasn't long before she joined him, burrowing herself against him so he would put his arm around her. Which he did a few seconds later. It wasn't often that Scáthach felt the need to let a man treat her like she was a fragile flower. Harry was acutely aware of what she could do and didn't take her for granted. Of course, their relationship was new and they hadn't argued much yet, but she had a good feeling about them. Time would tell if she was right.

They stayed the night aboard Manannan's coracle, safe from any kind of severe weather due to the protection spells imbued into the boat. They docked in Holyhead early the next morning and went to eat breakfast in a family oriented restaurant. Both had tried a few fast food restaurants, like McDonald's, but they weren't fans. Too greasy for their tastes. Oh, it would do in a pinch, but it wouldn't be their usual fare. Harry was contemplating what to do next when his senses told him that Luna and Hermione were both back where he could feel them. Strangely, he could tell that they were at the same place at this instant. Concentrating further, he could ironically pin them at Douglas, on the Isle of Man. Trying but failing to restrain a snort, he answered his lover's inquisitive gaze

«I just felt the life forces of two very good friends of mine appear. They are ironically on the Isle of Man.»

Seeing her confused gaze at the modern name of what was in fact his island, he told her the celt names.

«Its name back in the day was Mannin or perhaps Ellan Vannin if you prefer. It was my seat of power on Earth back in the old days.»

His lovely but bad-ass warrior princess made a sound of understanding and waited for him to continue, which he did a few seconds later

«Would you mind if we went to meet them? I really wish to see them again after so long and who knows? Maybe you three can become good friends? A few female friends might actually do you some good.»

Finished the young looking god with a teasing grin.

Scáthach huffed in good humour at her lover's jest, even if she dug her elbow in his ribs with a half strength blow as retaliation for his quip. His yelp of surprise and slight pain was music to her ears. She was not «girly» and did not do «Girl talk». She was a warrior, for gods' sake, not some simpering maiden. She knew her man was only teasing her, but still. She had a reputation to maintain. So after making sure he would hold his tongue about that particular subject, she told him

«Well, let's go meet them, then. Holyhead is nice, but I want to see more of your domain.»

And that was that. The Celtic couple made their way back to the docks and were quick to board Harry's coracle, which was currently disguised as a modern boat. All the while whistling a nameless tune that somehow made its way into his brain, he commanded the coracle to turn around, to hoist all the sails and to make way to the Isle of Man after plotting a course. He simply couldn't wait to see Hermione and Luna again. Something told him that they would both play a major role in Scáthach's and his future adventures.

Nearly fifty kilometres away from Holyhead, Luna Lovegood and Hermione Granger had come back from abroad and were currently heading to their shared flat in Douglas, on the Isle of Man. Days after Harry's departure to parts unknown, Hermione had booked a flight to Perth, Australia with the intent to go retrieve her parents. That was an odyssey and a half on its own. In the end, her parents had decided to stay in Australia for the time being while she went back to Britain. Hermione went back to her final year at Hogwarts with Ron and they made a go for a proper relationship. But without Harry to play the mediator between them when they were fighting, it wasn't the same. After a few weeks, they both came to the mutual conclusion that they were better as friends than as romantic partners. It was sad, but at least they had seen the truth before they made a more permanent commitment.

Hermione had visited the Isle of Man a few times with her parents before she went to Hogwarts and during her summer vacations and had always enjoyed the ambience. So after her graduation, she managed to find a flat in Douglas, the capital city of the isle. Then one day, Luna Lovegood walked back into her life and became her flatmate. Other than Ron and her, Luna was the only other person among Harry's circle of friends who knew that he was the reincarnation of Manannan Mac Lir and had gone to train in hope of recapturing his ancient strength. All of his other friends and surrogate family believed that he had left on a trip around the world to find himself. While Ginny had been sad to miss the chance to reignite what she and Harry had shared during his sixth year at Hogwarts, she understood that after everything he had lived through, he needed the chance to live his life without the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Not only did Luna fully believed Hermione about Harry's true nature, but she also wanted to talk the reborn Celtic god of the sea into letting her mount an expedition to either Avalon, Tír na nÓg or another of the Celtic Otherworlds to categorize their fauna and flora for an article in the Quibbler. Luna had also gone her own way after finishing her schooling for a time. As much as she loved her father, it was time for her to fly on her own wings so to speak. But something had guided her back to the Isle of Man and into Hermione's life after only a brief time abroad. And now, the same feeling brought her back towards the docks, even as they had just entered their home after an extended trip in Germany.

It was Hermione who spoke in a low but awed tone of voice, snapping Luna out of her trance, since she hadn't noticed that her friend had followed her

«It's him! Luna, it's… It's Harry! He's back! And he's coming… Somehow, I…I can feel it! He knows that we're here. I don't know how, but Harry will be here soon.»

Ten minutes later, a very thick mist rose from the sea without any prior warning and both witches could feel the sheer magical potency in it. For Hermione, the magical mist reminded her somehow of the feeling she would get when Harry, Ron and she would hide under Harry's invisibility cloak during their adventures at Hogwarts. It was one of Manannan's known abilities, Féth Fíada. He was truly here! Then from under the water near the free dock, burst out a very large coracle with a silvery white hull! Once the vessel had stabilized on top of the water and the dome over it had vanished, Luna and Hermione saw a tall and broad shouldered, black haired man jump onto the pier and walk around like he was the king of the sea. Then when he turned around, both young women saw his luminous, glasses free, emerald green eyes. But it was his smile that truly sold his identity to the two witches.

Neither Luna nor Hermione knew who had yelled his name in sheer joy first, but it didn't matter.

«HARRY!»

They raced toward their greatly missed friend, crashing bodily into him. Any lesser man would have fallen into the drink, but not Manannan Mac Lir. Proving his new strength, Harry had no difficulty grabbing both young women by their waists and twirling them around while laughing uproariously.

«Ah! My little moon and my own fountain of wisdom! I missed you both so much! It's so good to see you both again!»

Then he bent his head down and kissed the crown of both young women one after the other. Of course, Harry had seen that both of his lady friends had matured from late teenagers to beautiful young women during his absence. It was hard to miss, what with their now ample bosoms squashed into his torso during the hug and the sight of their developed hips… No, bad godly libido! Stay down! No perving on friends! After twirling them a bit longer, Harry finally put them down. Then he heard the voice of his lady love coming from the coracle

«So, these two are some of your old friends? Let me look at them.»

Scáthach had stepped on the pier and approached the happy reunion. It had been a long time since she saw a genuine friendship between a man and two women without any sexual overtones. She could see from her own eyes that while those three found themselves physically pleasing to the eye, they had no romantic spark toward each other so to speak. Or at least not yet. Pity. It would have been fun to beat back potential suitresses with her spears. Oh well, she was certain the time would come. The Witch of Dun Scaith wouldn't be sharing her man that easily.

While Luna and Hermione silently gaped at Scáthach's sudden appearance- they had no idea that Harry would bring someone with him! - they found themselves inexorably awed by her appearance and having to deal with a sudden feeling of inferiority regarding their own physical attributes. Proving that he was indeed both male and still very much clueless about the deep intricacies of a woman's psyche, Harry didn't recognize the first few salvos of a brand new kind of battle. With an eager smile, he released the waists of his close friends and went towards his lady love. In no time at all he grabbed her by the hips and stole a kiss from her before she could do anything about it. Of course, she got back at him right after by pinching a nerve cluster between his shoulder and neck, making him yelp in pain. While Hermione was blinking in incomprehension at seeing her oldest friend being that chummy with a woman who wasn't her, Luna snickered openly, glad to see that whoever had Harry's heart was able to tone down his new boisterous side.

«Scáthach, these are my friends, Luna Lovegood and Hermione Granger. The blonde one is Luna and the brunette currently imitating a fish is Hermione. Luna, Hermione, this is Scáthach, The Queen of the Land of Shadows, the Witch of Dun Scaith, Lord of Spirits and more importantly, my girlfriend.»

While Luna rolled with the punches that Harry was now a Celtic god reborn and his chosen paramour was an immortal woman who had trained many Celtic warriors who became legends in their own right, Hermione was much more skeptical. But she had learned to no longer impose her views and knowledge on anyone in hearing range. So while Hermione's greeting to the witch of Dun Scaith was gracious if a tad reserved, Luna went to shake her hand vigorously and ask her all sorts of questions. Like why her eyes were red, what kind of unusual creatures inhabited the Land of Shadows, how was the climate when she was younger, all sorts of things really. Harry watched this in silence, a twinkle in his eyes and a soft smile on his lips. It was good to be among his friends, old and new.

 

[Zephyr_Fauchelevent]

Awake And Alive



Chapter 5
​

Harry and Scáthach stayed in Luna and Hermione's three bedroom apartment for a few days before they felt it was time to move on. There was a backlog of souls waiting for their last ferry and it was Harry's duty to bring them to the Other Side. Luna and Hermione were watching him work his magic in collecting every soul of the deceased and letting them embark aboard his coracle in an orderly fashion. Their appearances were fascinating for the young women. They were similar but different to the ghosts populating Hogwarts. Instead of being silvery-gray, they were an ethereal green colour. Sometimes some of them would temporarily lose their human shape to become flame-like before reverting back to normal. Once the spiritual passengers were all aboard, Harry turned around to look as his friends and lady love

«So, ladies, are you up for a small trip to the Other Side? So long as you stay aboard my boat, or have my blessing, there's absolutely no danger. I'm dropping those guys off, then I'm coming right back. It would be a trip of a few hours at most.»

Scáthach hummed in thought, wondering if it was worth it or not, while Harry's old friends were both rather disturbed by the notion and how… normal the new god made it seem to be able to go back and forth between the World of the Living and the World of the Dead. In the end, the girls all opted out for various reasons. So Harry shrugged his shoulders and didn't insist. After a quick kiss to his girlfriend, the young god hopped into his coracle with no care about whoever could be watching. Féth Fíada was always up to its job of hiding the supernatural from mundane eyes. The more he made use of the magical mist, the easier it became to command it subconsciously. Harry sailed farther away into the Bay before mentally commanding his vessel to dive. Since he was alone this time, he didn't bother with the dome to keep the water away. He could breathe underwater and shrug off the pressure like it was nothing after all.

Once he was far enough from dry land to not cause any potential problems, Mac Lir closed his eyes, gathered his power with a specific purpose, then opened the door leading to the World of the Dead. Once safely on the Other Side, he made sure to close said door behind him before continuing further. Even if it was something of a hassle to keep opening and closing these metaphysical doors, Harry didn't want to cause any accidents by being negligent. There would be no «Zombie Apocalypse» under his watch, thank you very much! After a pleasant and problem-free underwater cruise, Harry surfaced in what he had taken to calling the Sea of Eden since it had no official name. This entire primal ecosystem was at the very border between the Land of the Living and the various afterlives. In this land, anything could happen. The Man of the Sea would let his passengers go once he was safely moored at the pier he could see on the horizon.

It might be surprising, but there was land not too far from his current position. It was in fact the famed Isle of the Blessed. There was a massive mountain at the center of the island and inside that mountain, there existed multiple caverns all over the island by which you could access the various afterlives governed by the world's pagan Death Gods. Harry had also recently learned that if he really wished it, he could easily sail up into the Heaven of the Abrahamic faiths due to a number of past actions taken by Yahweh without Him knowing all the facts. Or perhaps He had known and simply decided it wasn't important? Who really knew except the Big Guy in question? On one hand, he was tempted to do so right now if only for the chaos he would cause in his wake and for the sheer entertainment the look of sheer stupefaction on the angels' faces would bring him.

But on the other hand, he didn't want to tickle a sleeping dragon either. Who knew how Michael and the other Great Seraphs would react to the unannounced presence of a pagan god in their home? From what little memories Harry had of the Archangel in his previous life, Michael wasn't exactly known for his sense of humor. In the end, Harry decided to make a compromise with himself. He would make the Angels sweat a little bit, but wouldn't show up there on a whim. After marshalling his happiest thoughts at the forefront of his mind, Harry extended his hand towards the currently calm sea and said aloud,

«Expecto Patronum!»

From his palm, a magnificent stag made of silvery light emerged. It was the spitting image of his late father's animagus form. Thinking about Animagi, perhaps he could devote time to become one? It was food for thoughts. Prongs trotted around Sguaba Tuinne, looking for threats. Its ethereal hooves were making the otherwise calm water ripple with each step it took. When it didn't find anything wrong, the Stag patronus looked at the young man curiously. Harry told his magical construct with a fond tone of voice and a kind smile on his face

«I need you to go to Heaven via the Caverns and speak to Michael. Simply tell him that Manannan Mac Lir says «hello» will you? Thanks, Prongs. You're the best.»

Prongs bowed its head, then in a move that would have been impossible if it had been a flesh and blood animal, it face vaulted on a dime and galloped, first on the water, then on the ground and back on the water all the way inside the seaside cavern on the eastern side of the Isle of the Blessed. A few seconds later and the construct of silvery light had vanished even from his godly vision.

«Now, I just need to wait for their reactions… But, better go back to the girls just in case Michael takes the message the wrong way and comes looking for the perpetrator of the «prank call» with a legion…»

Harry spoke aloud to himself. What the reborn sea god hadn't known at the time, was that until they received his patronus, the Archangel and the other great Seraphs had entirely forgotten about the existence of the hidden passageway leading to and from the Isle of the Blessed. It had been a very long time since the Tuatha Dé had been active enough to interact with the world after all. Also, like many of the leaders who were alive ever since the Great War, the top brass of Heaven had greatly mellowed over time. At the same time as Harry opened anew the door to go back to the World of the Living and sailed through, his Patronus had finally reached its destination.

XxX
​

Michael was currently in a meeting to discuss the current events happening on Earth with the other three Great Seraphs, when the magical construct of silvery light passed through the closed door of his office. The sheer feeling of positivity, hope and happiness radiating from the silvery ghost-like stag made everyone speechless. A few tears of joy even escaped from Gabriel's suddenly moist eyes! Then to add on an already surreal event, the ghostly stag opened its mouth and a voice belonging to a young man, with a British accent, spoke like it was a simple conversation between friends in a pub

«Manannan Mac Lir says «Hello», Michael.»

Then once its message was delivered, the luminous ghost-like stag slowly vanished like it had never been there in the first place.

A heavy silence fell down upon the occupants of the office, until it was broken by Gabriel's voice

«Manannan Mac Lir? The Celtic god of the sea? So what Azazel was saying the other day on the phone was true then. The Tuatha Dé Danann are now awake once more… ?»

Gabriel's incredulous tone in her voice was to be expected. The old gods of Éire had, for the most part, willingly gone to sleep long ago and let the Heavenly Father's Faith slowly take over their former territories. Why were they awakening now? Hadn't they been preparing to fade away or else, return to their own original world with the intent of never coming back?

Uriel and Raphael were now conversing together in low tones, finally understanding why their elder brother had slowly but surely put Heaven back on a War footing as a precaution and went to reinforce the Pearly Gates' inherent defenses by himself. Who really knew what those numbskulls would do if they got bored enough? Then something extraordinary happened. Michael, who had been entirely silent until now, was clearly struggling with something. Like he needed to say something but knew he simply couldn't in present company. Then Raphael called for his older brother's attention, distracting the Archangel from his inner struggle

«Michael? Are you alright? Is there something wrong?»

The mighty Archangel Michael, God's Strongest Soldier and current Leader of Heaven, exploded in a long litany of awe-inspiring swear words, with quite a few that hadn't been heard in millennia! It was so shocking, that it paralysed the three Seraphs present in the room until Michael was entirely spent, since he was currently panting heavily. The reactions of the Archangel's siblings couldn't have been more different. Raphael was stunned and entirely speechless, Gabriel, by her body language was clearly becoming more and more furious by the second and Uriel let out a low impressed whistle, but quickly silenced himself with an audible gulp when their younger sister's harsh glare left Michael for a few seconds to fall on him. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned…

After what felt like forever but was instead a few minutes, Gabriel marched decisively to the other side of her eldest brother's desk, grabbed him by the ear while forcing him to get up. And the Strongest Woman in Heaven wasn't being gentle!

«I can't believe you! What kind of foul language is that?! You should be ashamed of letting such… such filth passes through your mouth! I thought I had made myself clear the other day, during your phone call with Azazel! I don't want to ever hear those kinds of words from you! Uriel! Raphael! Come with me! Right now! It's time to help our dearest big brother remember some of his manners! But first, we will wash your mouth thoroughly with sanctified soap and then you WILL purify yourself or so help me, I will do it for you!»

Uriel and Raphael were now stuck between a rock and a hard place. If they took Michael's side in this debacle, their sister's ire would fall on them; but on the other hand, Michael could be rather petty when feeling wronged. Who knows what he would do to get back at them? Missions all the way to the North and South poles were favourites of his… in the end, the other two Great Seraphs collectively decided that Gabriel was much scarier than Michael could ever hope to be and rushed to help her. Uriel got the door open in a hurry while Raphael used magic to make them all invisible and inaudible. It wouldn't do for the morale of their people to see their leaders in the middle of a sibling spat after all.

Michael was left entirely helpless. His baby sister had a very good grasp on his ear and wasn't letting go anytime soon. The pain he felt was so debilitating! In his mind though, he bemoaned

«Why, oh why have I inherited Father's motor-mouth syndrome of all things? It's not fair!»

Sometimes, being a leader and the eldest in the family really sucked. Michael was normally more than strong enough to free himself from his sister's hold, but some kind of mental block was stopping him from even trying. The Archangel would mentally bemoan his so-called fate during his entire punishment at the hands of his younger siblings.

XxX
​

Down in the Underworld, in the region controlled by the Fallen Angels, a somewhat similar but still different scene was unfolding. After promising his friends Shemhazai and Baraquiel, with his most sincere smile, that he would do his paperwork, Azazel managed to escape from his work by taking advantage of the naivety of his underlings. He had lost no time in running away once they had been gone long enough from his office. That is, until Penemue hunted him down like a prized stag, somehow managing to subdue him, and with the help of her assistant, tied his hands and feet to a wooden pole before parading him through their Headquarters and back to his office.

After having once again become a laughingstock of the Grigori, Azazel was currently being punished for his foolish ways. Baraquiel, with his superior physical strength, was holding his boss solidly under the Governor General's armpits while Shemhazai was venting off his frustrations on the eternal man-child by using him as a punching bag. Not that Azazel was taking the pounding seriously, since he couldn't help himself by still blowing away the importance of the bureaucracy and making comments between each of the hits he was receiving,

«Aww come on, Shem! Ouch! You know that kind of work is boring! Fuck, that one hurt like a bitch! You know that you and Barry are more than welcome to do the paperwork in my place? Wait! Wait! Wait! Not the face! Not the face! Gahh!»

Shemhazai was currently at his wit's end with their old friend. Increasingly more often these days, Baraquiel and he were forced to shoulder more and more responsibility in their Organisation with not even a «thank you» for their troubles. Azazel only did what little work interested him at the time before dropping everything and going back to either his Sacred Gear research or skirt chasing. And to add insult to injury, their ridiculous leader insisted on using annoying nicknames for them even when they kept telling him to stop doing it! It was almost a miracle that the Grigori hadn't collapsed in on itself by now! What Azazel, Shemhazai and Baraquiel hadn't noticed was that somebody else was in the room where Azazel was being punished for his idiocy. While he wasn't as strong as the other three, Kokabiel, the former Angel of Stars, could be quite stealthy when the mood took him. Hence why he could observe safely and discreetly that peace loving fool of a Governor General getting his just desserts for trying to abandon his work.

Seeing how things were falling apart in the Grigori vindicated him for the plans he already had put in motion. Soon, he would have his second Great War. It was time to leave the shadows and step into the light. Kokabiel watched Shemhazai vent his frustrations on Azazel for a while longer before leaving. He had things to do, pawns to move into place and a rather spectacular entrance to work on. He would slay the sisters of Lucifer and Leviathan, then Michael's pet Exorcists. They would all join Father in death. He had just phased through the door when he heard Azazel scream like a little girl. Kokabiel automatically winced in sympathy. No man, whatever their species, liked to be hit in the crotch area. Even if that oversexed, idiotic man-child had truly deserved it…

XxX
​

Rias Gremory, Heiress to the House of Gremory from the Seventy-Two Pillars of the Underworld was currently having an interesting time. In the Chinese curse sense of the words, in fact. She had hoped that managing to win her freedom from Riser Phenex in an unofficial Rating Game would have earned her Peerage some time off to relax and learn to work better as a single unit. For all that he possessed one of the thirteen Longinus Sacred Gears, her Pawn and now boyfriend Hyoudou Issei was still overly reliant on Ddraig's power and hadn't made much progress yet in training his own body. It didn't help that he simply had no control over his abnormal (even for a Devil) lust and everything under the sun made him react.

Her headache of the day? Two greenhorn exorcists, gifted with more fighting prowess than common sense. They had been sent by the Church to retrieve the missing Excalibur fragments stolen from the Vatican and Eastern Orthodox Church's headquarters by Fallen Angels. And of course, those same Fallen had «helpfully» left a trail of breadcrumbs for the Exorcists to follow all the way to her and Sona's territory. Then they had the sheer gall to demand, not ask mind you, but to DEMAND that her cute little servants and she stay out of their affairs.

The fact that both Church warriors had in their possession their own shards of the original Excalibur had also awoken Kiba's thirst for vengeance. Just what she needed. Maou dammit. And the cherry on the sundae? Shidou Irina was her darling Issei's childhood friend, who was clearly still carrying a torch for the perverted young man, even if Issei had originally thought his old friend was a boy…

Rias had the sinking feeling that the situation would go from simply headache inducing to a clusterfuck of biblical proportions. The beautiful and busty aqua eyed redhead had no idea how right she was until days later, the Exorcists, her Peerage and she were staring at a Cadre level Fallen Angel, a veteran of the Great War, the ten-winged Kokabiel. And she knew that if any back-up were to arrive, it would likely be too little, too late to be of any real help…

Sona Sitri, her fellow Heiress and King, with the help of her own peerage, were trying to contain Kokabiel and his immense power inside the Academy's campus with their strongest barrier spell. But would it really be enough? If a Devil could pray to the Almighty, Rias would most likely be doing it right now. Because they would certainly need a miracle to get out of this situation in one piece, never mind alive. Then as if something or someone had heard her thoughts, a fly in the ointment that represented the Fallen Angel of Stars' plans acted, right after the cadre dropped the bombshell that the God from the Bible had perished with the Original Satans in the Great War. Then Rias saw something she had never thought was possible before this very moment.

Something was overtaking Sona's barrier! A very large amount of water coming from who knows where was overwhelming and replacing the previous barrier at a rapid rhythm! In less than two minutes, a watery dome had formed itself over the Academy and the campus, sealing themselves in and keeping any would-be intruders out. When one was looking carefully at the watery barrier though, they could see a large amount of mist of all things floating inside the clearly magically infused life-giving liquid.

A few things happened at once. A large amount of water somehow fell from the barrier onto Kokabiel, forcing the Fallen to abort the formation of a titanic sized light spear so he could do his best to not crash on the solid ground and a smaller amount fell in front of the currently grounded Fallen, only to slowly take a humanoid appearance. The man, for it was clearly a man, was clad in gold and black armour, he was wearing a closed helmet shaped like a stylised fish, there were tassels of blue fabrics that reminded Rias of seafoam flying in the wind, a stylised belt buckle and a weapon in the form of a golden sword that had a similar shape to what she thought was a Dao.

Rias had absolutely no idea who this man was, but it was a gasp coming from Sona of all people, who had come down from the roof, since the control over the barrier had been taken from her, that gave away the most probable identity of the newcomer while stammering and sputtering nervously.

«Ma… Mana…Manannan… Mac Lir?! But… But… But that's…! That's impossible! The history books all say that the Tuatha Dé Danann faded from existence thousands of years ago!»

Trust a water aligned Devil like those from the Sitri clan to know about and be able to recognize both fresh and saltwater pagan deities at a glance. And Sona had finally learned to not always trust what was written in history books. History was often written by the winners after all. But by the Maous, what was an ancient Celtic god doing all the way in Japan?! The young Devils were so far out of their league it wasn't even funny…

XxX
​

Days before Kokabiel's assault on Kuoh Academy located in the eponymously named town in Japan, Harry and Scáthach had left Luna and Hermione's apartment to return to Grimmauld Place. Of course they would still stay in contact, but both Harry's old friends were due to go back to their jobs and the celtic couple felt it was time to leave to not abuse their friends' hospitality. Luna had taken over the running of The Quibbler from her father and Hermione was running her own bookstore catering to both worlds on the Isle of Man. The Isle had a relatively small magical community compared to the larger islands of Britain and Ireland, but Hermione prided herself in selling books that couldn't be found anywhere else in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.

At their return home, Harry was forced to take care of something he had entirely forgotten about. His apotheosis had more than likely been felt all over the various Celtic otherworlds, so he should have known that other interested parties, other than the Phantom Queen or the local Devils, would come knocking sooner or later. The woman who appeared to them right after he disengaged the wards over Twelve Grimmauld Place was such a person. She was tall and graceful, and wore a beautiful flowing, shimmering, and sheer, ice blue dress lined with gold, designed to enhance the figure of the woman wearing it, while drawing in the gaze of everyone else around. Titillation abounded wherever she walked in this gauzy delight.

With her long blond hair, blue eyes and heart shaped face, she almost looked like a more mature version of his friend Luna. Harry's eyes were drawn for a moment to the sapphire resting at the center of her bust, before they flicked back up to her golden diadem. Even if he had never met this woman in his current life, he knew who she was immediately. After all, he had tried to bed her numerous times without success in his past life. She had been Merlin's girl through and through, the lucky bastard.

«Hello Vivian.»

Harry greeted her with a polite tone, but without formality. A small smile crossed her lips and she answered with the same informality

«It's good to see you again, Manannan. It has been a long time.»

Then her gaze fell on the Queen of the Land of Shadows at the side of the Irish God of the Sea and the Fae was visibly startled. This time, Harry was perceptive enough to understand that there was likely some past history between the two women, so he quickly invited his unexpected guest to follow them inside. His lady love, in an act of possessiveness, or perhaps to mark her territory, deliberately trapped his right arm against her bosom while giving Vivian a rather wary look. Yup there was definitely some bad blood between them. And he was now stuck between them, joy.

Once again, Harry's sitting room was hosting an august «mythological» character. First the goddess Morrigan in person and now the Lady of the Lake. After Kreacher served them all tea and took the Master and Mistress' dirty laundry away, Harry steepled his fingers together and took the plunge

«So, to what do I owe the unexpected pleasure of your presence, Vivian? I clearly remember you telling me that you never wanted to see me again the last time we met in person. With liberal threats to my manhood should I get the idea of defying your wishes again, I might add.»

Vivian flinched visibly at that and looked away guiltily. She had been foolish at the time to be so abrupt with a god. But his latest attempt to get her into his bed and his lack of interest for the turmoils plaguing Britain at the time had been the straw that broke the camel's back. Manannan had always been sour about the fact that the Once and Future King had aligned their kingdom with the Church and Heaven instead of with the old gods of the isles. But this was in the past. The previous Man of the Sea was gone, so she hoped that she had had a chance to fix things with this new incarnation. She had dressed to impress, thinking that showing a bit of cleavage would net her better results, but hadn't imagined that the young god would have already been in a committed and monogamous relationship. Not with Scáthach of all people!

Vivian would have much preferred that Fand hadn't chosen to fade. Manannan's late wife had been a good friend of hers and they could have likely come to a mutually beneficial arrangement with little to no problem. Then Fand could have convinced her husband to help the Lady of the Lake by bribing him with sex. Vivian couldn't use that method with the Witch of Dun Scaith… So with a fortifying breath, the Water Fae told her superior

«I… I need your help. The Three Biblical Factions are making a mess of things and fighting over my possessions. I loaned a very good replica of Excalibur to the Church after the King of Knights was laid to rest in Avalon; and it was shattered into seven parts during one of the last battles of the Great War. The shards were eventually reforged into seven Holy swords with each having a single ability of the original. I asked for the Church to give the Excaliburs back to me, but they categorically refused. Michael has been screening and ignoring my calls for years, the Devil in charge of foreign affairs is utterly insane, obsessed with Magical Girl shows and with her younger sister.

And the less I think about that perverted, overgrown man-child of a Fallen named Azazel, the better off I will be. I absolutely CAN'T stand the man! He's even worse than Merlin ever was! I would go get the shards myself if I could, but Takamagahara forbade me from entering their lands after an… incident a few decades ago. Which is why I came here to ask for your assistance. While I would prefer to get all the sword fragments intact, I can live with them being destroyed.»

It was Scáthach who took control of the conversation and Harry was all too happy to let her since it gave him some time to consider all of his options. She brought herself forwards from her previously relaxed sitting position and spoke

«Wait a minute. Are you telling us that you deliberately loaned a powerful Holy sword to the Vatican and simply expected them to give it back to you when asked? Are you really that gullible? You are such a foolish, scatterbrained Fae if that's the case. Then you have the nerve to come here with the intention of seducing my lover? And when that plan obviously fell through, you are now asking us to go all the way to the Forbidden East to clean up a mess of your own making? You truly are lucky that MY Harry is such a generous person. If it was only my decision to make, I would have told you no. We will consider helping you out, but it will cost you. What are you willing to pay for our intervention?»

The three of them haggled fiercely for a long time, never reaching a satisfying compromise until Harry finally had enough and put his foot down.

«Enough. I will go to Japan and try to retrieve the Holy swords or else I will do my utmost best to destroy them. But in exchange, I want irrevocable free access to Avalon, to the King of Knights and the souls of the Knights of the Round Table. They haven't reached their promised afterlives yet, I can feel it clearly now that I'm focusing on them. They are lingering still. I intend to give them the choice to either stay in the Land of the Living and enter my service or to move on. That's the price I want for my help. It's my final offer. Take it or leave it, Vivian.»

The Lady of the Lake bit her lower lip with clear indecision, a pensive frown etched on her beautiful face. Manannan was really driving a hard bargain. Frankly, she would have preferred to trade access to her body instead. But this new Man of the Sea wasn't the stereotypical lush Irishman like he had often been in his past life. The King and their Knights were her pet projects after all and it pained her greatly to allow anyone else access to them. In the end, she had no choice but to accept if she wanted to fix the problem. But she did put a reasonable condition.

«We have an agreement then. But I beg of you, for the sake of every woman the world over, please don't free Merlin from his prison!»

That had the result of making both Harry and his lady love erupt in peels of laughter. Ah, it seemed that the Cambion was still a pain in the ass even in this modern era.

XxX
​

Days later, Harry in his full divine armor was facing off against the Fallen Angel of Stars. Kokabiel had the appearance of a man with long black hair and red eyes, and unlike other Fallen Angels, he had odd pointed ears like the Elves in fantasy books. The Fallen Cadre possessed five pairs of pitch-black wings, proudly showing from his back. He was currently wearing a black robe with detailed accessories and purple shoulder pads, with gold streaks on the side. Normally, Kokabiel would have enjoyed a bit of banter, but against an opponent of this caliber, that would be a mistake he wouldn't survive to repeat. So when the Celtic god slowly raised his blade in a ready position, the Fallen Angel created himself one with the help of his Holy Light and entered a serious stance.

Both opponents faced each other in silence, then after an unknown and unseen signal, they lunged toward each other. Kokabiel gave himself a speed boost with the help of his wings, while Manannan conjured water out of thin air under the soles of his boots to do the same. Their blades clashed once, twice, thrice before deadlocking after the fourth hit. Kokabiel's eyes widened slightly when water appeared from seemingly nowhere to engulf Fragarach's blade, only for the Man of the Sea to send it his way as an extremely high-pressure liquid blade! The Fallen Cadre had no choice but to sacrifice his Light sword in order to block it so he wouldn't suffer a grievous injury, but he easily replaced the blade with another. So, the Celt was playing for keeps huh? Kokabiel would just have to get serious then. He cricked his neck, offered the helmeted pagan a mocking smile, before flapping his wings, sending towards his foe a rain of cutting feathers.

Harry didn't even flinch. But instead of simply conjuring more water to attack or defend with, he flexed his aura a bit and disturbed the flow of magic infusing the feathers, which had the effect of making them fall to the ground, seemingly inert. And since it never hurt to be careful, with a vague gesture of his free hand, he cast an overpowered and silent vanishing spell. In a blink, all the discarded feathers on the battlefield were now gone. Harry had memories of previous fights against both types of angels using their discarded feathers as a successful surprise ambush tactic in battle. He wouldn't fall prey to the same trick like he had a few times in his past life. Then the fight heated once again and he no longer had the luxury of stray thoughts. At first, it was like an unstoppable object crashed against an immovable force. Kokabiel and Mac Lir clashed repeatedly with no one seemingly being able to overwhelm their foe. But a seasoned veteran could eventually tell you that slowly but surely, the pagan deity was getting the upper hand on the Fallen Angel.

Harry was frowning under his helm, was this fight supposed to be so… easy? His adversary was a millenia old Fallen Angel with five pairs of wings. Kokabiel was a known veteran of innumerable conflicts across history. Were Manannan's own powers and skills so superior to those of the Fallen Angel? Or perhaps Kokabiel's skills had atrophied from being idle for too long? Harry didn't know the answers to these questions and it was bothering him something fierce. He also had a gut feeling that his foe wasn't holding back all that much, or maybe even not at all. Harry guessed he would just have to be careful and keep his guard up in case the Cadre still had a few nasty surprises in reserve.

While Harry was erring on the side of caution while fighting Kokabiel underneath the barrier, Scáthach was making good use of the blessing she received from her boyfriend prior to the battle. She was currently patrolling on top of the barrier, wearing her battle attire, walking on the water like it was solid ground. Kokabiel was a member of the Grigori, an organisation which governed most of the Fallen Angels in existence. So there was a very good chance that Azazel or another Cadre would send someone to retrieve their wayward member and put a stop to his rampage. Scáthach's goal was to stall the possible envoy long enough so her lover could have his fun without interruptions and complete the mission they accepted from Vivian. Just as she was thinking that there would be no fun for her until later in the bedroom, a rather strange silhouette came into being nearby. Her sharp red eyes saw the dragonic looking armor but stayed silent.

While his Sacred Gear in its current form (Her lover had explained what the Biblical God did to help protect Humanity from the Supernatural World's depravations.) gave him a height advantage, the Queen of the Land of Shadows was no fool. It was but a boy. What was wrong with this Era? Always sending a boy to do a man's work, really?

High in the sky, Vali Lucifer brutally stopped his advance almost against his will. While seeing a barrier made of gravity defying water was quite surprising, his instincts were screaming at him to be on his guard. The beautiful redheaded spearwoman standing on the watery dome was watching him and for the first time in a long time, he wasn't certain if he really wanted to fight. Just as he was about to dive-bomb towards the barrier's guardian to test the waters so to speak, his partner's voice, Albion,one of the two Heavenly Dragons and the White Dragon Emperor, was heard from the wings on his back

«Vali, whatever you do, you have to be extremely careful. That woman is much more than she appears. There is a very good possibility that her skills might even surpass yours entirely. In fact, she reminds me of someone I knew a long time ago… if she is THAT woman, then you would be wise not to engage…»

Vali wasn't usually the type of person to be overly cautious. He was a battle maniac at heart, always looking for his next challenge. The stronger the foe, the better in his opinion. But he wasn't an idiot for all that. Before committing to a decision, he felt it was wise to test the waters. So after an aerial somersault, he flew toward the Barrier's guardian at ludicrous speed, zigzagging at extremely high speed in every direction so she wouldn't be able to get him with a thrown weapon. He was therefore quite surprised when she actually stopped him in his tracks with the help of one spear, and gave him a glancing blow with the other! Normally, his Scale Mail would have tanked the blow, but the edge of her second blood red spear tore through his Balance Breaker like a hot knife through butter! It was either sheer luck, or a warning blow on her part, that saw the wound he received being superficial! As it was right now, most of the right side of his waist was without protection whatsoever! He was quick to return back high in the sky, out of range from her spears

«Vali! Vali! Are you alright? Damn, you're hurt! We have a big problem! The barrier's guardian is THAT woman! We need to retreat now before it's too late!»

«What are you talking about, Albion? It was a simple lucky shot. Together we can defeat her just like anyone else we've faced before!»

Vali asked his partner, feeling rather irritated.

«Vali, listen to me carefully! That woman is none other than Scáthach the Witch of Dun Scaith and she's a God-Slayer. Basically, she is a living, breathing Longinus Sacred Gear! Anything in her hands can be used to kill a god! Forget about Kokabiel or Azazel's instructions, we need to leave before she gets serious! She would kill you before you even finished the chant to activate Juggernaut Drive!»

And to rub salt on the wound, she told him loud and clear

«That was your one and only warning, boy. Stay right where you are or leave and don't come back. One false move on your part and you won't be getting out of here alive. I won't show you any mercy if you decide to fight me.»

In the end, Vali would have failed his objective no matter what. After seeing one opening too many in Kokabiel's guard, Harry had no other choice but to take it since he wanted to take his foe alive. The Fallen Angel was an exceptional swordsman, but a rather poor brawler. With a tremendous amount of power behind it, Harry delivered a Earth shaking punch in the Fallen's solar plexus, which had the effect of making Kokabiel fold himself in two due to the world shattering pain he was feeling,

Then another two high power fists to the temples had the Cadre falling unconscious on the ground.

«Is that it? Is that all there is? You could have been something much more, Kokabiel. Feh, what a waste.»

The god's voice was clearly distorted by his helmet, but the softness of the tone and the genuine disappointment were clearly heard by everyone present.

With nary but a snap of Manannnan's fingers, a torrent of water fell upon the unconscious Fallen Angel from the still active barrier to not only bind him with enchanted cold iron chains but also to generate a miniature version of the barrier that was still surrounding the campus. In a gravity defying way, the amount of water currently not in use to secure the prisoner took him back up through the barrier and deposited Kokabiel in the invisible Sguaba Tuinne that was hovering higher in the sky, where it wouldn't be in the way. With the foe beaten and taken into custody, Harry decided it was time to tie up the loose ends around here before leaving. He was certain that the local pantheon was now aware of his presence and he shouldn't tarry.

He approached the two exorcists first, the blue haired one still defiant and brandishing Durandal even if she was clearly on her last legs. The brown haired one had just regained consciousness but she was in no shape to fight either. He then told Xenovia

«Peace, girl. If I had wanted to hurt you or your friend, I would have done so already. The both of you owe me. I saved both of your lives when I clearly wasn't obligated to do so. My price to square these debts is the destruction of the Excalibur fragments and the delivery of two written letters to Michael and Gabriel. If the Archangel doesn't like it, simply tell him to take it up with Lady Vivian of the Lake and Lord Manannan Mac Lir..» .

Harry didn't wait for Xenovia's permission or reaction to the bombshells he had just dropped on her before summoning all the five fragments present on the battlefield in one neat pile before erecting a quick barrier to protect everyone from the backlash when he swung Fragarach with his full might. One blinding light show and powerful release of energy later, Harry used another overpowered and silent Vanishing charm to banish the remaining mess into non-being. Now five out of seven fragments of the Excalibur replica had been destroyed. Vivian would just have to look for the missing two fragments and handle them herself. He had upheld his part of the deal.

Once done with the now angry exorcists for the moment, Harry called up his lover

«Luv, the battle is over. I'm going to bring down the barrier in a moment. Do you want help coming down?»

Scáthach didn't answer him. She simply let herself fall into the barrier, let the current take her on the side and once she emerged from the liquid, stabbed a spear into the magical water to slow her descent toward the ground. Once on solid ground, Harry had to take a minute to admire how her wet suit accentuated her curves… Shaking his mind out of the gutter, Harry concentrated for an instant before willing the barrier away. The watery dome which until now had been entirely opaque first became transparent, before losing its tangibility and vanishing like it had never been here in the first place.

Harry then willed Fragarach away before approaching the Devils. Once he was near both Sona and Rias, in an admirable but ultimately foolish and futile move, both Saji and Issei dashed in front of their respective King with their Sacred Gear at the ready. The sight brought a hidden smile out of Harry. Those kids were really loyal. But they weren't a threat. In an over the top tone of voice, Harry boomed

«Miss Sitri! Miss Gremory! Front and center! Attend to me!»

After Sona and Rias had gotten their respective Pawns to stand down, they warily approached the Celtic god. To make them feel a bit more at ease, he deliberately let slip the snicker that had formed and been held back after trying to be bombastic, which had as a result of making Sona's right eye twitch in clear irritation and for Rias' lips to curl into a little amused smile. They stayed silent for a moment before Mac Lir took the reins of the conversation.

«The both of you owe me.»

Since they were pureblood Devils, both Rias and Sona were much more sensitive to the subtleties of contract magic than any of the others. The Celtic gods were known for their geas back in the day after all. In one voice, Rias and Sona answered

«We do, Lord Mac Lir.»

Harry's smile wasn't seen but he was proud of those two. They were really quite clever.

«I saved you both when I wasn't obligated to do so.»

Again the stereo answer came

«You did. We recognize our debt, Lord Mac Lir.»

«Then as repayment, one of you will deliver written letters to your leaders, the Yondai Maou and the other will explain to the Shinto god who will be here soon what exactly has transpired here.»

Again as one, both Sona and Rias said

«We hear and obey, Lord Mac Lir. I, Heiress Rias Gremory / I, Heiress Sona Sitri, swear to uphold our end of the contract.»

After a flash of light, both geasa were sealed and then Sona and Rias had a quick game of Rock Paper Scissors to decide who would be doing what. The winner would be the delivery girl and the loser would have to play host.

Harry manifested all the letters he wanted to send with but a thought, all of which contained an invitation to attend Kokabiel's public execution in two weeks time. Mac Lir would meet them In London, in Trafalgar Square at nine o'clock in the morning, local time, before taking them to the exact location of the Execution. He made sure to put a strong compulsion on the letters to make sure they wouldn't be discarded, ignored and / or destroyed until they were read by their recipient. The Man of the Sea even sent one to Vali, who was still hovering where he had been ever since Scáthach stopped him in his tracks.

«Could you give that letter to Azazel in person, please? Thank you, young man. Oh, I would get the hell out of here if I were you. Another god is coming and I don't think he or she will be in a very good mood. Have a good day.»

Then he dismissed the White Dragon Emperor's presence entirely. On a whim, Harry decided to include the young Devils in the group of people that would be spectators for the Execution. Kokabiel had just tried to kill them after all. It was simply just desserts to let them have closure. With another snap of his fingers, The Man of the Sea manifested the invitations for Rias, Sona and their respective peerages and left them on their King's respective desks in their clubrooms. It was now time to leave and quickly, he could feel another divine presence quickly closing in. Harry put an arm around his lover's waist then in a swirl of mist, they vanished from the ground to appear back aboard Sguaba Tuinne. Harry had just enough time to open a door for the Other Side, quickly sail through it then close it back safely behind him when another powerful divine aura made itself known over Kuoh Academy. And by the powerful stormy feel of it, it was most likely Susanoo…

Spoiler: Lady Vivian of the Lake

 

[Zephyr_Fauchelevent]

Awake And Alive



Chapter 6
​

Author's Notes: Welcome to the sixth chapter of Awake And Alive. In this chapter, I will use the TYPE-MOON version of many recurrent characters; such as the Knights of the Round Table. I decided to do so since it's easier for me to look for information as needed. There is little to no information about characters from actual Arthurian Mythology and not their descendants or Heroic reincarnations, in the High School DxD wiki. I also slightly modified the summoning chant used in Fate/Apocrypha to summon the Servants of the Black Faction so it would suit my needs better. This is your one and only warning, trolls, purists and dissenters alike will be thoroughly ignored. This story is a crossover ladies and gentlemen, you have to play somewhat fast and loose on the rules and you have to give and take on the lore to make the story work. Oh well, now let's get this show on the road.



While Sona had gotten the metaphorical short end of the stick by having to explain to a rather upset Susanoo what exactly had transpired here, Rias took advantage of her messenger girl duty. In regular circumstances, you could not travel to and from the Underworld by way of the teleportation circles. Well not so much as couldn't, but it was heavily frowned upon since travelling that way bypassed the customs. You needed, in regular circumstances, to schedule your travel plans in advance via the transdimensional train station closest to your location in the Human world. But with a geas on her enforced by Manannan Mac Lir of all people, the Gremory Heiress felt that the circumstances were enough of an emergency to forgo the usual protocol.

Which was why, when she got into her clubroom, she rushed to the ritual circle embedded in the floor and lost no time sending her power through it. Strangely, the connection took less time than usual. It was only when she was about to be transported that Rias recognized the feel of her older brother's power. When she was through the Dimensional Void and in the Underworld proper, she realized rather quickly that she wasn't at the Gremory Estate, but in her elder brother's private mansion. Rias had little time to brace herself when a boisterous voice was heard out loud

«Ria-tan!»

It was all she could do before she was picked from the ground and twirled around by her boisterous elder sibling. And of course, they weren't alone. Nearby, at the ready, were a full phalanx of heavily armed soldiers. Great, just great. Sirzechs Lucifer, formerly Gremory, was a tall man with crimson red hair and blue-green eyes. In fact, both siblings had inherited their father, Zeoticus', eyes. He was rather handsome and looked to be in his early twenties. While generally laid back and preferring to talk his way out of problems, Sirzechs could be very ruthless and even cruel if the occasion called for it. He was a man who lived and loved hard. His deep love for his younger sister and son were very well known. In fact, Sirzechs loved his sister so much that he was rightly labelled as a sis-con…

«Oh, Ria-tan! Big brother was so, so, sooo worried! When I learned about that old grouch Kokabiel attacking your school, I blew off my meeting with Lord Barbatos, and burst out of my office while calling for my Peerage and the Army to assemble immediately! But that meany Falbium only gave me a single phalanx! He said the rest was needed to protect the Underworld! I was just about to go to the Human world to save you when I felt you coming in! Are you alright? Are you hurt? Do you want me to kiss it better?»

Rias could only moan internally at her brother's embarrassing ramblings. She should have stayed in the Human world and dealt with Susanoo-dono instead…

Devils were natural born polyglots, so it stood to reason that they would borrow forms of respect from multiple languages. The Japanese tongue was favored by Rias' for multiple reasons, hence why she addressed the Shinto deity as she had in her mind.

She was saved from further embarrassment by her sister-in-law, who was also her brother's Queen. Grayfia Lucifuge was, in one word, beautiful. She was a young woman appearing to be in her early twenties with back-length silver hair that features a long braid on each side with small blue bows at the ends, while the rest is let down which ends in twin braids and silver eyes. The most telling thing, though, was that she was dressed in a modified French Maid uniform. But no one was foolish enough to question the Strongest Queen's fashion sense out loud. She only had to speak in a quasi-emotionless tone for Sirzechs to seize up in abject fear.

«Sirzechs-sama, if you would be so kind as to put Rias-sama down so we could get to the bottom of this affair?»

Sirzechs Lucifer, the Maou of Internal affairs, leader of the Underworld, arguably the most powerful pureblood Devil alive and decorated veteran of the Devil Civil War, gulped loudly in fear and robotically put his younger sister down. His wife was terrifying…

After confirming that, yes, Kokabiel had indeed attacked them and that, yes, he had been soundly defeated and that no one was injured to the point that her relatively new Bishop Asia Argento couldn't handle things with her Sacred Gear Twilight Healing; Grayfia dismissed the Phalanx but kept the rest of Sirzechs' Peerage on stand-by, just in case. They adjourned to a nearby sitting room, where Rias almost collapsed on the couch due to the adrenaline leaving her system. After Grayfia served her a cup of tea, the story of the last few days' events all came pouring out. The Exorcists sent by the Vatican, the stray Exorcist, Freed Sellzen, the excommunicated Archbishop, Valper Galilei, and the shards of Excalibur, then being saved from certain death by Manannan Mac Lir of all people! And if only to add another unreal event on top of another, the Celtic god had invoked Contract magic by asking them trivial things in order to repay him their life debts! And talking about that…

Before Rias could bring out the letters for the Four Great Devil Kings, Sirzechs had suddenly stopped pacing while listening to her tale. Grayfia, in her corner, visibly stiffened. Now very serious, which wasn't something the Gremory heiress saw very often, the current Lucifer asked for clarifications

«Rias, it's very important. Are you absolutely certain that it was Manannan Mac Lir who saved you? I'm not doubting your word, but could you have mistaken him with another deity? And you said that he invoked a geas as payment for the life debts owed to him by Sona and you?»

She answered quickly

«It was Sona-chan who deduced the god's identity, Onii-sama. As a water-aligned Devil, she is more than capable of recognizing fresh or saltwater pagan deities. Then after the fight was over, he confirmed it himself. But I don't understand. If what Sona had said was right, the history books we studied all say that the old pagan gods of the British Isles disappeared thousands of years ago. So either the books are all wrong or there's something else that wasn't to be spoken about. Like the «little» secret about the God from the Bible dying in the Great War with the original four Maous?»

Sirzechs kept his silence for a short while, having a silent conversation with his wife, before his shoulders fell a bit.

«The information I'm about to share with you is considered a State secret. If you ever speak about it, even if only once, to anyone else outside this room without my express permission or the permission of another Maou, you will be severely and harshly punished. And no Rias, batting your eyes at me and whining my name in that overly cute way you used to do when you really wanted something won't work this time. I will hate it and myself for doing such a thing to you, but I will still proceed. No one is above the law in our society, little sister. No one. Not even me. Consider yourself to be duly warned.

It was decided between the Leaders of the three Biblical Factions to keep the deaths of the Biblical God and the original Maous from the regular populace. Heaven was the worst affected by the demise of their creator, but letting the news out would have created more conflicts among the other Factions that we could do without. As for the subject of the Tuatha Dé Danann, that pantheon had always kept to themselves more than any other.

You have to understand Ria-tan, many of their members were battle maniacs like our cousin Sairaorg, but to an even worse degree. More fighting prowess than common sense really. Others were womanizers to a similar or perhaps even a higher level than Azazel himself. That old stereotype about lush, pub brawlers and drunken Irishmen? It came from the well earned reputation of the Tuatha Dé. They were also very liberal with their curses.

They weren't particularly warmongering compared to say, the Norse or the Romans in the old days, but they weren't all that helpful in building stability and any kind of lasting peace either. So when they vanished without prior warning, which was before my time, mind you, we, that is the Leaders of the Three Biblical Factions, didn't try very hard to find them and simply took over their past holdings. Our historians likely decided to write that they were gone and we didn't try all that hard to discourage their way of seeing things. In fact, we would have preferred they stay gone, but it's just wishful thinking. The Tuatha Dé are awake now and we will just have to adapt to their presence and deal with it.»

Brother and sister kept discussing various things, until Rias had the occasion of giving her brother the invitation she had been contractually required to bring him. Normally she would have taken him up on his offer to distribute the rest of the invitations to the other Maous, but the task fell to her and her alone if she wanted to square her debt. Sirzechs frowned a bit, but didn't say anything more on the subject. Mac Lir had let the girls off rather easily. A Life Debt was not something a Devil could shrug off easily after all. He inspected the invitation again, analysing it deeper with the help of his magical senses. Maou Lucifer easily detected the mild compulsions on the letter and was once again forced to admit, if only to himself, that the Lord of Capes had played things very straight. Which was rather unusual for a Celtic god. In the end, Sirzechs told his sister

«Go rest for a few hours, Rias. I will call the other Satans here so you can deliver the invitations when you will wake up.»

She fired back quickly

«But Onii-sama, what about my friends? And what about Sona and her own family?»

Grayfia intervened in her King and husband's favor

«About your Peerage, I will go to the Human world and fetch them myself, Rias-sama. We will send them to join your rest as soon as they arrive and will simply debrief them later. We need to start dealing with the fallout of Kokabiel's attack. As for Sona-sama, I will inquire about her plans when I next see her; but you should be aware that it is very possible that Leviathan-sama has already made arrangements for her younger sister and her own Peerage.»

In the end, Rias folded. She was reassured, exhausted and out of valid arguments.

XxX
​

On the Isle of the Blessed, Harry and Scáthach were unloading their precious cargo. Kokabiel was still unconscious, but it wouldn't be a state that would last long. Already they were signs that pointed to the fact that he would regain consciousness relatively soon. Which was why Harry was now using his powers to either find or create some amounts of Faery food. Once you ate even a nibble of it, you were cursed to subsist only on that form of sustenance. And if you tried to leave the Faery Realms, you would quickly age to a level that would make an ancient Egyptian mummy look young and vigorous. There were two exceptions to this rule. You had to either be a Fae or a member of the Tuatha Dé. Kokabiel was neither. After force feeding their prisoner some Faerie broth, he decided to keep the Fallen unconscious for a while longer.

Harry pointed an index finger at the prone Kokabiel and with ease, he declared

«Stupefy.»

A bolt of brilliant red light escaped his finger and slammed into the prisoner's chest, sending him back into blissful unconsciousness for a few more hours. Harry no longer had the need to say the incantations out loud, but it was still a habit he was trying to break. You would think that Wizarding magic wouldn't work on a Fallen Angel, but with the caster being so much more powerful than the target, it was easy to bypass the normal magic resistance of angelic beings. No longer caring if the ex-cadre broke free from his restraints or not, Harry enchanted a pebble he had previously picked from the shore into a portkey with a quick muttered

»Portus.»

He then tossed the now enchanted pebble on his prisoner's chest, only for him to vanish in a flash of blue light. Expecting Scáthach's question, he told her with a small smile before she could ask

«I merely sent him away further inland. After force feeding him some Faerie food he can no longer leave the Isle of the Blessed alive. I will execute him in front of the Leaders of the Three Biblical Factions and the young Devils, but that's not for two more weeks. And since I don't want Kokabiel to get too comfortable, I intend to call for some help to «entertain» him. Vivian held her part of our deal, since I can now access the souls of the Knights of the Round Table. She surely felt it when I destroyed the shards of the Excalibur replica. I will summon the Knights into the forms of Heroic Spirits and I will task them to keep Kokabiel on his toes until it's time to bring him in for his sentence.»

His girlfriend graced him with a nod of the head and a beautiful smile which did funny things to his insides. Spirits, he was really falling in love wasn't he? Harry shook his head to get back into the game. He could have his wicked way with her once he was done here.

Since he was Lord and Master here, it was child's play for Harry to use his godly powers to modify the physical aspect of the Isle of the Blessed to create a clearing big enough to carve the massively sized ritual circle he would need. Without magic, it would have taken hours to carve all the needed lines and runes. But since he was magical, it took Harry around forty minutes to complete everything. Of course, during that time he had willed away his divine armor, preferring to wear bermuda shorts, sandals and a simple sleeveless t-shirt in this summer climate. He then filled the carved ritual circle with Féth Fíada infused water to serve as a reactive agent. Everything was now ready.

He took a long breath, held it in for a while and then let it leave him slowly. Harry then closed his eyes for a moment and said to his lover

«Luv, you should get ready. I'm going to throw the floodgates of my power wide open. For a summoning like this, I'll need to get serious.»

Scáthach gave him the infamous «Are you an idiot?» stare that women worldwide gave their other halves when they said or did something stupid in their presence, but she hadn't needed to say anything to get her point across. Harry had the grace of giving her a sheepish smile. His girlfriend was a God-slayer. She could withstand the pressures caused by a deity letting his power roam wild easily. The only reason he had managed to overwhelm her with his divine aura when he ascended was because she had been unprepared and somewhat tired from the previous hours of nonstop combat. It had been centuries since she had last fought against a god before Harry after all. It wouldn't happen again.

When Harry's eyes finally shot open, they were now glowing brightly from the inside. A great sense of power started flowing from him and he started to chant, first softly, then with an increasingly strong voice

«Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Let each be turned over five times, simply breaking asunder the fulfilled time. Let silver and steel be the essence. Let stone and the archduke of contracts be the foundation. I am the great Master Manannan Mac Lir who is the Ferryman. Raise a wall, against the wind that shall fall. Close the four cardinal gates. Come out from the crown. Rotate the three-branched road reaching the Kingdom.»

The massive ritual circle had started glowing with a soft ethereal blue light, becoming brighter by the second. An unnaturally powerful wind coming from the sea had risen, and the animals were strangely quiet, likely knowing by instinct that something unnatural was going on. While the nature around the pagan god and the immortal was reacting to the former's actions, Harry was still chanting and going strong, now with the palm of his dominant hand pointing towards the Ritual Circle.

«– I shall declare here. Your bodies shall serve under me. My fate shall be with your swords. Submit to the beckoning from the Blessed Otherworld. If you will submit to this will and this reason…… then answer!»

The ritual circle's glow was now so intense that Scáthach had to raise an arm to protect her eyes. The strength of the wind had also increased, not to the point of being able to blow them away yet but close.

«– An oath shall be sworn here! I shall attain all virtues of all of Heaven. I shall have dominion over all evils of all of Hell! – From the Seventh Heaven, attended to by three great words of power, come forth from the ring of restraint, Protectors of the Balance!»

There was a powerful and blinding flash of light coming from the ritual circle, before it died down. When Harry and his lady love could see properly again, it was to see thirteen different persons kneeling on one knee. They were all wearing rather ornate armour and most had a sword at the ready. In one voice, they all said

«We are the Knights of the Round Table. You who have summoned us, we ask of you; are you our Master?»

Harry was quick to say

«Arise, Sir Knights. I'm Manannan Mac Lir and yes, it does seem that I'm your master.»

He could feel their collective disbelief. He understood them really, he wasn't exactly dressed to impress after all. With nothing but a simple flex of his will, Fragarach appeared in his hands, taking its preferred form of a bastard sword. It might not look like much, but even a total neophyte could tell that there was something more about that blade. A shorter knight with a full face horned helm and a silver armor with some red said

«Oi, I thought the old gods of the isles were either gone or dead, what with Christianity aggressively taking over?»

Harry turned to faced the Knight who had spoken and he told them with a little secretive smile

«Most of us had decided that it was time for a good long nap. The mortals were no longer as entertaining as they had been in ages past, even before the Romans conquered the Isles, bringing with them their Hellenistic gods. The Tuatha Dé are now making a big comeback. And let me tell you, messing around with the uptight Pillar Devils is rather fun. I even made a prank call to Heaven the other day. I wonder how that went?»

There was something vicious passing through the young looking man's emerald green eyes. Something that told everyone who had sharp enough senses that he was much more dangerous than he looked like. His sharp smile was also another clue. Harry was quick to take back control of the conversation before Bedivere or Agravain could speak. He loudly clapped his hands together and said

«Right. Let's get to the purpose of your summoning. A few hours ago, I defeated, in single combat, the Fallen Angel Kokabiel and took him prisoner. The problem is that he's an insane warmonger and he just tried to restart the Great War between the Grigori, the Underworld and Heaven by killing the relatives of the current leaders of the Devils and two Exorcists sponsored by the Church, who just happened to be Holy Swordswomen. I invited the leaders of the Three Biblical Factions to join me here in two weeks time for Kokabiel's execution. Your task, for now, is to harass him. Feel very free to hunt him down and beat him to a pulp, but I need him alive and with all his limbs attached. Other than that? It's your decision. I force fed him some Faery food earlier, so he can't escape the Isle of the Blessed alive. I sent him further inland after stunning him and I didn't bother to remove the cold iron chains I trussed him up with. Any questions?»

The Knights started to talk under low tones to each other, some groups of two or three forming. But it was Sir Lancelot who spoke

«Hum, Lord… Mac Lir? I was wondering, where is the King? Haven't you summoned them yet?»

Harry answered honestly the Knight of the Lake with a shrug of his shoulders

«I can't summon the King of Knights because they are technically still alive. I can't summon someone who hasn't passed on to the Other Side. King Arthur is still sleeping like a log in Avalon. The thirteen of you were dead as doornails though. Your souls were held in stasis until recently by Lady Vivianne. We came to an agreement recently and after fulfilling my side of the deal, she released you in my care. Any other questions?»

When no other immediate questions came, Harry waved them off by saying

«Well, I wish you a good hunt guys and try to have some fun. I'll see you in a few days. Oh, before I forget!»

The Man of the Sea snapped his fingers and magically conjured a hunting horn. It was rather plain looking, but it would do its job. Then he gave it to Gawain. The blond knight gave him a nonplussed look and the sea god was quick to explain

«When I'm ready for the big show in two weeks, I'll sound off a similar hunting horn. I have the unshakable confidence in you all that you will have your quarry captured and restrained a day or two before his appointment with the Executioner's blade. So when I call you with my horn, you just have to answer me with yours and march to my position.»

The Knight of the Sun nodded in understanding and after politely thanking his summoner and taking the hunting horn with him, he went to join his fellow Knights in planning their Fallen Angel hunt. Harry and Scáthach then took their leave. By the scorching looks they were giving each other, they both had the same idea… It was still to be decided if they would wait until they were in the privacy of their bedroom in Grimmauld Place or if they would succumb to the temptation of fornicating somewhere else… Having sex aboard his coracle was sounding more and more interesting…

XxX
​

After she and her Peerage rested for a few hours and they were debriefed about Kokabiel's attack, Rias was doing her utmost best to not wear a dent in the floor by pacing due to her nervousness. While she had often seen Leviathan-sama while growing up, what with being childhood and best friends with the Maou of Foreign Affairs' younger sister, she wasn't as well acquainted with the other two. There was some kind of rhythmic knock on the door, five quick knocks and two slower ones, which made Sirzechs smile in amusement before he called out loud

«Enter!»

The first to enter all the while skipping childishly was Sona's older sister, Serafall Leviathan. Then she was followed by both Ajuka Beelzebub and Falbium Asmodeus at a more sedate pace. Falbium was even now moving in a slouched position while Ajuka was typing something on his smartphone-like device.

To say that Rias was nervous was like saying that the ocean was wet and the sky vast. She was very nervous, but after closing her eyes and taking a gulp of air, she approached her superiors. When she was near enough, she bowed low at the waist and respectfully greeted her rulers.

«Leviathan-sama, Beelzebub-sama, Asmodeus-sama, thank you for coming on such short notice. Can I assume that you have been briefed on the circumstances?»

It was Falbium who spoke first, his tone somewhat dismissive and harsh

«Yeah, yeah. That old dusty crow Kokabiel attacked, was defeated and captured. But what I want to know is, are you telling the truth about the comeback of the Tuatha Dé Danann, girl? If you're lying, the consequences won't be pretty for you, sister of Sirzechs or not.»

Instead of retreating like a scared mouse from the moody and bald Maou, Rias squared her shoulders and answered Asmodeus while looking at him in the eyes

«Feel free to scan me magically for a geas if you wish for undeniable proof, Asmodeus-sama. I am not changing my story. Sona Sitri, our Peerages, the two Exorcists sent by the Vatican and myself were saved from certain death by Manannan Mac Lir. He was also accompanied by a redheaded and red eyed Spearswoman. We never heard her name, but Mac Lir was openly affectionate with her.»

Before Falbium could say something else, Ajuka spoke up all the while inspecting the young lady by walking around her, examining her more in depth with the help of his magical senses

«Falbium, my friend, calm down, will you? I can feel Celtic magic all over her without having to focus much. Young Rias here is telling the truth. That old boy Mac Lir sure lit the blue touch paper and ran like hell, didn't he? That's rather typical of him from what I've read and heard about the man. Well, when he wasn't acting like the stereotypical lush Irishman that is. It's clear that he had been much more lenient than expected of a Celtic god. My my, he really could have messed you up good with that Life Debt if he had wished for it, young lady. You were quite lucky.»

Rias was grateful for the intervention and lost no time in showing it. With another bow, she answered

«Thank you for your kind words, Beelzebub-sama.»

Ajuka waved her down but when he was about to speak again, he was interrupted by Serafall.

«It's a good thing that old Manny Mac Lir took Kokabiel away when he did. If he hadn't, I might have stormed my way to Grigori HQ to give Azazel a piece of my mind. And maybe some taste of a winter wonderland. It has been a while since I last used the Celsius Cross Trigger after all. That antediluvian black feathered grouch almost hurt my precious So-tan! Ooooh! What I wouldn't give to be able to wring that feather-duster's neck with my bare hands! But mom said I had to be res-pon-si-ble, ugh. Why did I accept this job again?»

While Rias had to make an effort to not react overtly at Serafall's displays of childishness, Sirzechs had no such compunction and let out an amused chuckle. His old friend's antics never ceased to amuse him. Before the meeting could devolve any further, the Crimson Satan took the lead

«My friends, you know why I called you here. Would you let Rias fulfill her duty so she can clear her debt? As genuine and straight forward as Mac Lir had been, I for one, don't wish for my younger sister to feel the penalties for dallying too long. We can speculate upon the Lord of Capes' motives and his fellow deities' reasons for awakening after so long, once she is done.»

The other three Satans finally accepted and Rias was now free to distribute the written invitations. Once done, she retreated at her brother's left side since Grayfia was standing vigil at his right. It was Falbium, who after carefully reading the invitation a few times, pointed the obvious

«Mac Lir most likely wishes to use Kokabiel's execution and our presence at his shindig as a way to make his big debut in the Supernatural world at large. By executing a known warmonger, he's marking himself as pro-peace, politically speaking. He's clearly acting on his own volition, since there is no mention of meeting with the Dagda or any other high ranking celtic gods. He might wish to form alliances or perhaps create a pact of non-aggression with us. It would explain why he was so straightforward and honest in his dealings with the young'uns. Now it remains to be seen if he's the kind of man to delegate the dirty work to his subordinates or if he's unafraid to get his own hands soaked in blood. Condemning a man to death and doing the deed himself are two different things after all.»

The other three Maous frowned as one, each considering what Falbium had said. But why would a member of the Tuatha Dé offer them olive branches now after being so isolationist for thousands of years? To be fair, the Devils of yore were not really good allies, but now? Something wasn't adding up. This time it was Serafall who spoke up, rather serious at the beginning but becoming more excited and somewhat childish by the end of her phrase

«I guess I will have to clear my schedule and attend the meeting in person if I want to know more, then. So-tan also told me that Mac Lir left an invitation to attend the event for her and her peerage and asked for permission to attend, and I told her yes. It seems that a field trip to London will be in the cards after all. I wonder if Manny will give us time to go visit Big Ben?»

XxX
​

Two weeks later, on the day in question, and about half an hour before the appointed time, Harry was waiting for his guests in Trafalgar Square. He was wearing a dark green tuxedo with a white shirt and a lighter green tie. He had managed to tame his hair somewhat and Fragarach was on one of his fingers in the form of a signet ring. Its current form meant nothing, Harry was able to fight even without his sword. Not that he was expecting a fight here, so close to Ten Downing Street. Alerting the general Muggle population of what truly lurked in the dark would be a foolish and idiotic move. Scáthach was near him, his right arm around her left. She was truly gorgeous today. She was wearing a thigh length black blouse, black sheer tights, knee high heeled boots, also black. To complete the look, she even had a black leather handbag and her long beautiful hair was left free as was her preference.

When he saw her dress like that this morning, it took every last bit of his willpower to not just throw her back onto their bed and have his way with her. And by the knowing look and the little crooked smile she gave him while slowly putting on a pair of panties, Scáthach knew exactly what she was doing to him. The minx. Harry had used Féth Fíada instead of a Muggle Repelling charm, since the magical mist could make them look utterly uninteresting instead of making everyone avoid their location, showing to more keen onlookers that something unusual was happening there.

The first to arrive were the angelic siblings Michael and Gabriel. Both had long blond hair and green eyes, a shade paler than his own. He was wearing a nice cream coloured tuxedo, with no wings or halo in sight for both of them. She was wearing a conservative knee length light blue sundress and a necklace with a small silver cross on it. While Michael's currently shorter hair was held in a low ponytail on his nape with a sky blue ribbon, Gabriel's was in a thick french braid hanging low on her back. The siblings were alone for a few minutes before Azazel and Shemhazai appeared. Contrary to his pure siblings who were wearing western style clothes, the Governor-General was wearing an informal navy blue kimono while the Vice-Governor had at least made an effort to look professional with a grey-blue tuxedo of his own. Michael and Azazel shared a look before they shared a nod and a sincere smile. Gabriel wasn't so restrained though. She took off from her position at Michael's side and lost no time in glomping onto her fallen brother. It had been three hundred years since they last saw each other in person after all.

Azazel was initially surprised by the hug, but a kind smile etched itself on his face before he tenderly embraced his younger sister. It was good to see her again after so long. Gabriel was about to give Shemhazai the same treatment as Azazel, but he simply shook his head in a negative fashion. No hugs for him. A few minutes later, the Devil contingent finally arrived. The younger Devils were chaperoned by the respective elder sibling of their King, while Ajuka was absently fiddling on a portable device of some kind while walking to their destination. Falbium was slowly, sluggishly trailing behind his tech-savvy friend, looking like he had just dragged himself out of bed. Once everyone was present, the leaders lost no time in greeting each other and making polite small talk. The younger Devils were more or less paralyzed with no small amount of awe, and a bit of fear. Well, except Issei, who was devouring Serafall and Gabriel's figures with his eyes.

Rias would have scolded him for his bad manners, but compared to his usual antics, Issei was rather restrained. So she chose to simply let it go and take his hand in hers. Her Pawn stopped ogling the female leaders to offer her a reassuring smile and squeezed her hand. She had asked him to be on his best behaviour for this event and he was clearly making efforts to keep his word since it was very important for her. The informal meet and greet came to a rather abrupt end when a thick mist heavy with magic rose suddenly without prior warning. It was Sona who broke the silence once again by gulping nervously and saying,

«… Féth Fíada… He's here…»

Sirzechs and Serafall practically teleported in front of their younger siblings, staring at their surroundings worryingly, while Rias and Sona's respective peerage closed ranks around their King in support. Falbium finally looked interested enough to no longer seem on the verge of falling asleep standing up, and Ajuka was poking with evident curiosity the banks of mist that came close to him. Azazel was looking at the same mist with an exasperated look, like he would have preferred to not see it at all, while Shemhazai was definitely nervous. The Vice Governor-General of the Grigori had a few previous encounters with the goddess Morrigan and he nearly didn't make it out alive after their last meeting! Gabriel and Michael were looking around calmly, wondering from which side the Irish sea god would arrive.

Harry let the suspense build for a few more minutes, before his beloved Scáthach nudged him lightly. It was show time. The celtic couple made their appearance by simply walking through the mist. As soon as they stepped through, it died down to an almost invisible level. While the adults weren't so entranced by Harry and Scáthach's looks, for the teens it was another thing entirely. Issei was openly drooling at the redheaded woman and even the stoic Sona felt herself beginning to blush at the sight of such a handsome young man looking so debonair in a tux! Even Saji and Kiba had to pinch their noses lest they get a nosebleed at seeing the god's companion!

Harry then said with a small but genuine half-smile

«Good morning everyone. Thank you for coming. I am Manannan Mac Lir and the lovely lady at my arm is Scáthach.»

Harry made a small pause, if only to observe the reactions of his guests at the name of his beloved. The Devils were either looking at her either with clueless expressions or with pensive frowns, Azazel and Shemhazai's eyes bugged out rather comically. Michael was now looking a bit pale and his hands were becoming sweaty. The most mind-blowing reaction, however, was Gabriel's,

«Wait a minute… Scáthach? The Queen of the Land of Shadows? The teacher of the Irish Hero Cú Chulainn? You're real! Oooh! I can't believe it!»

She snapped her fingers, making her handbag appear from a small magic circle, then started to look through it all the while mumbling under her breath. When the strongest woman in Heaven finally found what she was looking for, it was to brandish almost like a weapon a pen and a notepad in both hands and then say sweetly

«Please, may I have your autograph? You're my personal hero!»

The bubbly Seraph's actions were enough to break the sudden rise in tension, letting the adults chuckle at the angel's antics and the spearswoman's dumbfounded looks. Deciding to let the women sort themselves after Serafall joined Gabriel and Scáthach, Harry approached the Governor-General of the Grigori slowly but deliberately. He then offered his hand to shake to the Fallen Angel, while politely greeting him

«Sir Azazel. I'm glad to find you in good health.»

With a small put-upon sigh, Azazel gave his hand to the polite Celtic deity, only to be pleasantly surprised to receive a warrior's handshake rather than a modern one, since Mac Lir had grabbed his wrist instead. Bemused, and amused, Azazel reciprocated and answered with a half grin

«Lord Mac Lir. Peachy seeing you again.»

Harry made his rounds around the men until it was time to greet the ladies. Since Serafall was closer to him than Gabriel, he started with her. But instead of offering her the warrior's handshake like he did with the men, Mac Lir bowed deep at the waist and deposited a galant kiss on the knuckles of Maou Leviathan's right hand while greeting her

«Your Grace Leviathan.»

After he was done greeting her, Serafall lost no time in wiping her hand against the skirt of her business suit while exclaiming,

«Eww, gross! Boy cooties!»

Harry was slightly taken aback from that kind of reaction, until Shemhazai of all people, exaggerated a cough while saying the word

«Chūnibyō…»

It took a moment for Harry's mind to translate the word and its meanings, but when it did, he answered with a nod of the head and a simple,

«Ah.»

So Serafall Leviathan was afflicted with an eighth-grader syndrome. That would explain why Vivianne thought that this particular Maou was insane. Harry finished his round of greetings and was it amusing to see the Seraph Gabriel blush and stutter like the young ladies did after the traditional kiss on the knuckles? Clapping his hands loudly to make everyone pay attention to him, Harry said to his guests

«Right, now that the formalities are taken care of, it's time to get to the main event. If you will follow me? I will guide you through the path leading to our final destination. I set up a door by the fountain nearby. Water makes an excellent medium for transdimensional journeys. Well, it does when you're a sea god.»

He finished with an amused smile. He was trying to make his guests feel more at ease and he wasn't sure if it was working or not. Even Serafall had an excellent poker face at the moment. He found the kids interesting, but they weren't in a position of power in their government. Not yet. So their opinions didn't matter as much as the adults, for now. Harry didn't want to join the Biblical Factions so much as he wanted to build a cordial relationship with them.

They were among the biggest players of the modern supernatural world after all. Once everyone was assembled near the fountain, the Man of the Sea snapped his fingers, but the sound produced a bigger than normal echo. A few seconds after his action, the fountain's jets stopped entirely and the water already inside it somehow solidified without turning into ice to form a stairway going down, bypassing the bottom of the structure and everything that should be underneath. There were also a few banks of mist now floating around the stairway.

Seeing the incredulous looks of everyone except his girlfriend, Harry suddenly felt a bit on the defensive, and exclaimed,

«What? It's either that or we take a trip on the Thames aboard my coracle. In the end, it's your choice. But trust me when I say that this stairway is the fastest way to get to our destination.»

In the end it was Azazel who took the initiative, all the while mumbling something about going down the Rabbit Hole. Being British, Harry recognised the quote coming from Alice in Wonderland and found it rather appropriate. After a bit of hesitation, the kids followed between their elders, with Harry and his lady love closing the march. The trip down the stairs lasted for only a few minutes before they emerged on dry land near the cliffs overlooking the Sea of Eden, crashing in great waves at their bases.

More precisely they were on the western side of the Isle of the Blessed, where he had planned to hold the execution. Once everyone was out of the stairway, it vanished like it had never been here in the first place. Seeing the wary looks on the various leaders' faces, Harry was quick to answer

«I apologize for closing the way back so suddenly, but we're no longer on Earth and the last thing I want is to be responsible for a Zombie Apocalypse. So I've gotten into the habit of closing the door behind me each time I travel between the World of the Living and the World of the Dead. Once we're done here I will bring you back. I'm willing to swear an Oath if needed.»

Scáthach, bless her kind heart, came to his rescue by adding

«I can vouch for Manannan. He's a man of his word. He will bring you all back to the World of the Living after we're done here or he won't be getting any tonight.»

She finished with an amused smirk, which made the tension which had escalated over the past several minutes take an immediate nosedive. So what if he was the subject of a few mocking jibes? That was nothing compared to when his name came out of the Goblet of Fire during his fourth year of schooling at Hogwarts. He was about to lead the way to the cliffs but a timid voice interrupted his action

«Ano… Lord… Mac Lir? Where exactly are we? It's so beautiful and serene!»

It was the blonde girl at the Red Dragon Emperor's side that had spoken. She had introduced herself previously as Asia Argento. Keeping his tone calm and amiable, he answered her

«Well, Miss Argento, we are currently on the Isle of the Blessed. It is one of the many Celtic Otherworlds running parallel to Earth. We are at the very frontier between the World of the Living and the various Afterlives. This island is the final destination for the souls under my jurisdiction that I ferry. From there, they go to their respective afterlives on their own. Now excuse me, please. I need to speak to everyone.»

After walking ahead of everyone, Harry explained

«Our destination is nearer to the cliffs. It's a five minute walk from here. Please don't be alarmed, I will sound off a hunting horn as soon as we arrive so my assistants know to bring in the prisoner. I intend to get rid of the bad business before leading with the good.»

From one moment to another, Harry's tux changed into his divine armor, without the helmet and Fragarach appeared, sheathed at his left hip. Once at the destination, he did as previously stated. A normal looking hunting horn suddenly appeared in his hand, and he brought it up to his lips; and after taking a breath, blew forth so that the sound of the horn was heard for kilometres around. Just as the sounds of the primeval nature around them took back their rights, another hunting horn was heard coming from the south. Soon the sounds of soldiers marching towards them could be heard, louder and louder, until the Knights of the Round Table were seen in all their martial glory. Sirs Bedivere and Agravain were at the head of the procession, with a rather roughed up Kokabiel securely held by Gawain and Lancelot with the rest of the Knights closing the march.

With anger tarnishing her handsome face and her voice after she saw people who were supposed to be long dead, Gabriel turned toward the pagan god and almost snarled at him

«What did you do, you fool?! Have you taken leave of your common sense?! You resurrected people who have been dead for hundreds of years! You, who is a Ferryman of the Dead, should know the importance of the balance between life and death! You must fix this mess quickly! They all need to go back to their eternal slumber, now!»

Before Harry could say anything in his defense except raising an incredulous eyebrow, Michael's soothing voice was heard, defusing his younger sister's rising temper

«Peace, Gabriel. Look deeper with your magical senses open, little sister. Those knights aren't alive per see. They are in fact Heroic Spirits if I'm not mistaken. Also, It is not our place to tell deities from other pantheons what they can and cannot do. Not anymore. If Lord Mac Lir had chosen to resurrect the Knights of the Round Table, he would have been well within his rights to do so.The Knights and their King had been claimed by the Fae Vivian since the creation of their order, thus their souls belonged to the Tuatha Dé Danann. Even if the King aligned their Kingdom with Heaven.»

Suddenly feeling very embarrassed after basically making a fool of herself in front of so many important people, Gabriel hid her flushed face in her hands and mumbled an apology. Not feeling slighted at all, Harry told her with a casual shrug of his shoulders and an amused smile

«My lady, you have nothing to apologize for. I'm not even upset. I think you should be more afraid of what Her Grace Leviathan might do with the knowledge of your rising temper rather than any reaction on my part.»

Gabriel let out a loud groan after seeing Serafall's wolfish smile, which brought an amused smile from the Pagan deity and the two free Fallen Angels. Clapping his hands together, Harry brought back the meeting to where it should go. With his game face on, he marched toward his prisoner and ordered the knights holding the now ex-Cadre

«Bring him to the executioner's block.»

Gawain and Lancelot were quick to obey but when Kokabiel started to struggle, Mordred appeared in front of him with a quick application of mana burst, only to shove their armored fist deep into the prisoner's solar plexus. The combination of being out of breath and being in debilitating pain due to the very powerful hit made the condemned easier to be moved. Suddenly, all the mirth was gone. The seriousness was back with a vengeance. Asia, the very gentle soul who absolutely despised hurting and seeing people get hurt, spoke up suddenly

« Lord Mac Lir? Why? Why does Kokabiel need to die? Can't he just be judged by a jury made of his peers and be sent to prison for his crimes?»

It was Bedivere who answered her with a sad smile and a sad voice

«Milady, there is no prison anywhere in the Human world that could hold him long enough for him to serve his just sentence. And being a Fallen Angel who can live for thousands of years, a lifetime of imprisonment would be simply too cruel. Better a quick and painless death than an eternity of suffering.»

Then it was Issei who spoke up for the first time

«Hum, is there an appointed executioner? And I don't see any gallows around…»

Modern Japan still applied the death penalty, not very often, but it still happened. But those condemned to death were only ever hanged.

This time, it was Tristan who answered softly

«We, the Knights of the Round Table and Lord Mac Lir, are men of the Old World and of honour. We usually hold to the belief that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die.»

Issei was many things, but an imbecile he was not. Not anymore. He understood quickly that they were about to see the ex-Grigori cadre be beheaded. He felt rather queasy at the idea, but he knew better than to speak his objections out loud. They were in Manannan's domain, where the international laws of the Human world and those of the Underworld had no hold. The Red Dragon Emperor was brought out of his musing by Mac Lir's voice

«Do you have any final words, Kokabiel?»

The battered and dirty Fallen Angel was on his knees, still flanked by Lancelot and Gawain and the rest of the Knights nearby on standby. When the warmonger said nothing, just seemingly seething in silence and plotting still, the Lord of Capes spoke up again

«You ate Faery food, Kokabiel. Even if you were to escape from your execution, you can no longer leave this Otherworld alive. So I repeat. Do you have any last words?»

When the condemned still stayed silent, Harry let out a quiet sigh and spoke up again

«Very well. Let's proceed.»

Lancelot and Gawain took the initiative to put the prisoner's head on the executioner's block while the Man of the Sea slowly drew Fragarach, who escaped her sheath with a quasi musical note, before it took the shape and the size of a Scottish claymore. With the blade pointing to the ground, the sea god spoke out loud with a tangible authority in his voice

«In the name of Manannan of the House of Lir, First of His Name, King of Tír na nÓg, Lord of Capes, and Protector of the British Islands, I, Harry of the House of Potter, Lord of the House of Black and Potter and Warden of Hogwarts, sentence you to die.»

Then, almost too swiftly for the young Devils to see, Mac Lir resolutely swung his sword and beheaded the condemned. Kokabiel, the Fallen Angel of Stars, was no more.

Spoiler: What Scáthach was wearing for the meeting

 

[Zephyr_Fauchelevent]

Awake And Alive



Chapter 7
​

Author's Notes: Alright, let me make something very, very, clear, since I'm getting rather tired of answering the same question every time. The quotation marks I use in this story are the French version and they do the exact same thing as the regular version people are used to seeing. My Laptop's keyboard is configured in a way that makes it easier for me to use the French quotation marks than the English ones, so I'm going to keep using them. One day, if I have a new laptop whose keyboard is configured in a way that the English quotation marks are easier to use than the French ones, I will use them. I hope this explanation will stop any future questions about the subject, because I will no longer answer such reviews. Thank you for your understanding.

Harry did not wait for the shock caused by the old school execution to blow over before thinking about the next commands he would give to the Knights. Ignoring his other guests for the moment, he asked the leader of the Fallen Angels

«Sir Azazel, do you wish to take Kokabiel's body back to the Grigori with you for the funeral or should I have him cremated here?»

The Governor-General was quick to answer with a decisive tone of voice, his usual lazy gaze now as flinty as it could be without currently engaging in battle

«Do whatever you want with him, Lord Mac Lir. The day he tried to restart the Great War was the day he stopped being a member of the Grigori Organisation.»

The young looking god nodded respectfully and then gave orders to the Knights, now that he knew where the Governor-General was standing

«Take Kokabiel's body away and burn it on a funeral pyre. Let the wind scatter his ashes. The sentence is passed, the man deserves at least the respect of the last rites. Once it's over, you are all free to do as you wish until I recall you.»

«At once, Lord Mac Lir.»

Was the collective answer.

Harry then casually conjured a rag to wipe the blood off his blade, no longer looking at his Servants, who after hearing his command, either went to attention like a modern soldier would for a short time, or gave a quick shallow bow, before doing as they were ordered. They weren't bothered by his tone of voice or by the order, they had done similar tasks under the King of Knights when they had been alive after all. Manannan Mac Lir was not King Arthur and never will be, but they had answered his summons and the contract between them placed him as their superior officer. It was to his leisure that they were experiencing a simulacra of life after all and not still languishing in eternal slumber.

Once the Knights and Kokabiel's body were gone from sight, Harry sheathed Fragarach and willed away his divine armor, with his previous tuxedo taking its place. After taking a fortifying breath, he faced his guests once more. While the leaders had quickly composed themselves, the kids were more or less all troubled by what happened. They had been sheltered from the darker side of the world, not out of malice, but to allow them to grow up as peacefully as possible. Harry guided his guests away from the executioner's block a bit further inland. Once in a less morose location, Harry said

«Now that the bad business is done, let's start handling the rewards. Miss Gremory, Mister Kiba, step forward, please.»

Seeing their confused gazes, he added to the Gremory Heiress since the young man was clearly deferring to her judgement

«Don't worry, you aren't in any kind of trouble. I simply wish to reward your Knight for his part in keeping you all alive during Kokabiel's attack. You're simply needed to help me administer said reward.»

He finished with an encouraging smile.

The two teens finally stepped forwards after some hesitation. Then Harry took a better look at what the young woman was wearing. A school uniform. Oh no. It wouldn't do. Not at all. With a small impish smile and a twinkle of mischief in his green eyes, he asked her

«So, Miss Gremory, you're basically a Devil princess, am I right?»

Rias blinked at the question, unsure where the god in front of her was going with that reasoning but answered all the same, not seeing or feeling anything wrong in divulging such basic information

«Err, yes? Well technically I would be a Marchioness, since the Gremory Clan is a Ducal House and I'm still only the heiress. But it's not the first time I was called a Princess. May I ask why, Lord Mac Lir?»

Her only answer was a larger impish smile from the handsome Celtic god and with a snap of his fingers, her school uniform changed into a perfect replica of the dress that Princess Zelda wore in the video game, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Rias' long red hair had been put into a very specific hairdo, she wore an authentic diadem and she even had the same sword in hand seen in the cutscene where Zant invaded Hyrule Castle! The Man of the Sea wasn't bothered by her sputters of surprise, since he had also dressed her Knight in the Hero outfit from the same iconic game, including a Master sword and Hylian shield replicas. It fit him rather well to be honest. Mac Lir had moved behind Rias, delicately taking the wrist of her sword arm into his hand and telling her gently

«Don't you worry, Miss. Please, just go with the flow. You simply have to repeat after me and follow my lead. Now, with a royal tone of voice, order your Knight to kneel.»

Yuuto, who had been rather busy admiring his new outfit and dealing with the weight of the very authentic chainmail shirt, was a bit surprised to hear his King use the tone of command and ordered him to

«Yuuto, kneel.»

The handsome young man was quick to obey, getting down on one knee in front of his Princess, with his head properly bowed and a gauntleted fist to his heart.

Harry told something else to Rias with a quiet voice

«Between each sentence, touch both of his shoulders in an alternating pattern with the flat of your blade.»

Rias nodded silently, now getting into the strange game that was the Celtic god's whims. While she wasn't exactly a big fan of Legend of Zelda in general, she had to admit that it was a great innovation coming from her favourite country of the Human world. And the way that Issei's heated gaze was now fixated on her alone was also quite nice. Humm, she might have to consider extending her wardrobe for cosplay outfits…

«In the name of the Warrior, I charge you to be Brave.
In the name of the Father, I charge you to be Just.
In the name of the Mother, I charge you to Defend the young and innocent.
In the name of the Maid, I charge you to Protect all women.
In the name of the Smith, I charge you to keep yourself Strong.
In the name of the Crone, I charge you to exercise Wisdom.
In the name of the Stranger, I charge you to deal Death Cleanly and Swiftly.
Now, arise, Ser Yuuto Kiba, Knight of Rias Gremory.»

Once the impromptu knighting ceremony was done, everyone present applauded. Genshirou Saji, Sona's Pawn, even went far enough to put two fingers in the corners of his mouth and whistle loudly. Once the calm came back, the Man of the Sea told Princess Rias and Knight Yuuto with a kind smile

«Feel free to keep the clothes, the jewels and the weapons, I have no further need for them.»

Then he was off in the direction of the other young Devils with a spring in his step.

Harry hadn't prepared personalized gifts for everyone, it would have taken too long and too much research with too little time to pull it off successfully. For the small white haired Nekoshou, Koneko, whose name he was trying to remember, Harry handed out a paper bag full of a selection of sweets he had bought from Honeydukes in Hogsmeade. For Issei, it was a bundle of twenty Playwizard magazines, with moving pictures in colour. The look on his face was priceless when he saw the obvious differences from normal magazines after taking a brief look at one. That would keep him busy for a good while…

Nearly everyone else had gotten bags containing two hundred golden galleons, but not Sona or Akeno. For the former, Harry demonstrated again the might of his magic by creating in front of her an Ice Rod. At first Sona thought he would tease her by making it look like a stereotypical magic wand from the cartoons, with a coloured star on top of a simple and brittle wooden stick. But no, what he created was a key whose head was shaped into a very detailed diamond snowflake held like a pendant. Sona could feel the sheer amount of magical energy held inside the key without trying and it didn't take long to put two and two together after seeing the Celtic god's amused smile and her older sister's sudden interest in the gift.

Mac Lir had created for her a Magical Girl's wand! And she couldn't refuse such a gift without making a political faux-pas! Before she could thank him for his boon and find a fitting hiding place for it to be forgotten about, he told her

«Please, take good care of Diamond Heart, Miss Sitri. Its powerful ice magic will be a great help for you in your future battles. It doesn't have an activation phrase yet, so simply channel your power into it and it will take its true form. About just as much as you would use to create your magic circle teleportation, I'd say. From there it will answer your vocal commands after you choose your activation phrase. If you put three drops of your blood on the sealed form of Diamond Heart, it will only ever work for you and your future children. You also have my solemn word that the Ice Rod doesn't come with a mandatory clothing change, I'm not that cruel.»

He finished with a would-be reassuring smile. He knew she had no reason to believe him, but it didn't bother him all that much. The Sitri heiress would find the truth of his words when she would use her brand new gift. For Akeno's gift, Harry had to really think deeply about what he could offer the pretty Nephilim. He had first wanted to allow her to talk to her deceased mother one last time, but the soul of Shuri Himejima was beyond his reach. Such an endeavour had too many unknown variables, for far too little benefits for him to risk offending Izanami. For all of Mac Lir's innate strength and experience that came to him during his apotheosis, Harry was too new in his godhood to go pick a fight against a foreign primordial goddess.

So for lack of a better gift, he had decided to unlock her hidden potential for Lightning magic. With a serene smile, the Lord of Capes put his left hand on her head. Nothing happened for the next few minutes and just as she was about to ask what was going on, his green eyes first started to glow, then the hand on her head did too. At first there was nothing, but after he removed his hand from its previous position and took a few steps back, Akeno was engulfed from head to toe in a fire-like white coloured aura with no prior warning. After a hiccup of surprise, lightning magic, stronger than anything she ever experienced before, jetted out of her being! The light show lasted for a few minutes, before it finally died down.

The Man of the Sea observed in silence and when he saw her inquisitive gaze land on him he explained before she could voice her request

«This is my gift to you, Miss Himejima. I unlocked your hidden potential for Lightning magic, since I clearly remember you relying on that element in particular for your spells. Sadly, the side effects of such a sudden power boost mean you will have to reacquaint yourself with the basic exercises to gain back your previous level of control.»

Before Harry could change the subject again and make a spectacle of his actions, he was politely interrupted by Michael.

«Excuse me, Lord Mac Lir, now that the children have been rewarded for their selfless bravery, I feel it is time to address the real reason behind our presence here. It is clear that seeing how easily you defeated and captured him, you could have executed Kokabiel without repercussions much sooner than this. Yet, you deliberately sought us, the Leaders of the Three Biblical Factions, out. I would like to know why you, a Tuatha Dé, offered us olive branches after thousands of years of willing isolation.»

Harry debated for a moment about if he should give a straight answer to the Archangel or look for a way to tease him with the goal of getting under his skin just for the fun of watching his reactions; but ultimately decided to give him a straight answer with no strings attached. With a simple flex of his will, he imposed a change on their location. No longer were they on rocky soil, but now they were all resting on a wooden gazebo-like deck with comfortable looking chairs for everyone. Once they all took a seat, the Lord of Capes then answered

«I've sought you all out because in the modern Supernatural world, the Abrahamic pantheon is the most well known. You are among the biggest players, so to speak. And even after the Great War, you still have a lengthy reach and great influence. I'm not the High King of the Children of Danu, so I can't foster official alliances between our two pantheons. But I'm still the Ferryman of the Dead and the King of Tír na nÓg.

I wished to cultivate a friendship between us and perhaps a few trade accords in the not so far flung future, after I take stock of my kingdom. I also established myself as pro-peace because that's truly my stance. I wouldn't mind a few spars with any of you, but the last thing that I want is to find out if we, denizens of the Supernatural world, can live to tell the tale after being hit by nuclear weapons. I won't be the one responsible for starting a war. The very last thing we need is to be discovered by the mundane Governments and be seen as the aggressor. Humanity is exceedingly gifted at death and destruction.»

At that, every adult present nodded grimly. They all saw at one point or another exactly what Humanity was capable of. They also understood that it was just the opening of a door between them and the Lord of Capes. It would take time and effort to cultivate proper bonds between them. But nothing worth doing was ever done quickly.

From there they all spoke of much lighter things for a while longer before Harry felt it was time to wrap things up.

«Well, as much fun as I had meeting everyone, I think it's time that I return you all to the World of the Living. It's not healthy for you all to stay here for too long. You're neither a Tuatha Dé, a Spirit or a Fae, after all. I can ferry you all back to London with no problem. But if Your Graces Michael and Gabriel would prefer to go back directly to Heaven from here, it's easily doable. Sadly, I can't really recommend that Sirs Azazel and Shemhazai, Your Graces, the Four Great Satans and the Young Devils take the waterway leading to the Underworld, since it leads directly into Hades' domain.»

There was no need to explain any more, for it was well known that the Greek god of the Underworld was not a good neighbour and attacked any intruder foolish enough to set foot in his Demesne with extreme prejudice. It would be the height of idiocy for Fallen Angels and Devils to sail down to the most powerful Hellenistic god's Domain.

In the end, Michael and Gabriel asked if they could see the waterway leading to Heaven before committing to a decision, but it was a given that the others would go back to Earth before heading off to their final destination by their own means. With a simple flex of his will, the entire group was now much closer to the wooden pier where Sguaba Tuinne was moored. Before they boarded though, Issei seemed to have a meltdown. With actual steam blowing out of his nostrils and a determined glare, he yelled out loud while doing some kind of Sentai pose

«Wooooh! I can't take it anymore! I need! Naked! Oppai! Let's go! Boosted Gear!»

The Sacred Gear housing Ddraig's soul appeared on the young man's hand in a red and green flash of light, which had the effect of making Harry look at it with open curiosity and his divine senses wide open. Yahweh had done some truly excellent work to put the soul and powers of the Welsh Dragon in that dinky little thing!

Well, that was the case until Manannan saw who would be the victim of whatever the Red Dragon Emperor was preparing. Oh no. The boy wouldn't have dared. Harry had made his claim crystal clear for everyone to see! That just wouldn't do. While feeling more anger than he had first expected, Harry caught the gauntlet-covered hand in a vice-like grip before it could make contact with his beloved. Proof that she hadn't been worried, Scáthach hadn't even moved. While she likely wouldn't have minded whatever the boy wanted to do to her, Harry minded very much! He lost no time in making his point across.

«I don't know what exactly you were trying to pull with such a telegraphed move, Mister Hyoudou. But if you have any love for your arm, then dismiss your Sacred Gear right now; before I tear it from your body and beat you half to death with it! You just violated Guest rights! In my own Domain on top of everything! I would be well within my right to kill you here and now for such an offence, and no one could stop me. Have I tried to inappropriately touch your woman? The answer is «no»! I did no such thing! Then why have you just tried to touch mine like that?! It doesn't even matter that my lover likely wouldn't care. In my case, I care very much about such things!»

Issei had been about to really lay into the god when he caught his arm- he needed his fix dammit!- but the look on Manannan's face, his hauntingly glowing green eyes and the feeling of sheer power exuding from the deity had him blanching and sweating with sudden nerves. The rest of his speech hadn't helped either. Well, in hindsight, he should have tried to use Dress Break on the girls of Rias' peerage instead, he wouldn't have been in such deep shit like he was right now…

Sirzechs, who had seen everything but sadly hadn't managed to prevent it in time, was quick to shoot his younger sister a glare that promised one hell of a chewing out, then told her with gritted teeth and a strained voice

«When we get back to Kuoh, you, your servant and I will be having a very serious conversation, Rias. One of the subjects of this conversation will be when and where such actions can happen without consequences.»

A quick look at Rias permitted everyone else to see how ashen her face had become in the last few minutes. It wasn't her goofy older brother speaking right now, but Maou Lucifer and he was absolutely furious. His words were clipped and even a total novice could see that he was struggling to keep his composure. After Mac Lir had released Issei once the kid dispelled his Sacred Gear in a hurry, Sirzechs bowed very low in front of the now silent and wary Celt god and told him

«My most sincere apologies for this egregious breach of conduct, Lord Mac Lir. My sister's Pawn is newly reincarnated and hasn't learned how to properly reign in his base desires yet. They will both be severely punished for their misconduct. You have my most solemn word that such a thing will never happen again.»

Harry pinned Sirzechs with a piercing look with his emerald green eyes, looking for anything amiss in his very soul, while the rest of the gathering kept silent. After what seemed to be an eternity but in reality was but a minute or two, the Man of the Sea answered with a firm tone of voice, since he had managed to calm himself, after stopping to glare at Issei since the boy wasn't idiotic enough to try again so soon

«I'm not blaming you for Mister Hyoudou's bad manners, Your Grace Lucifer. But if the kid ever tries that kind of thing again on my girlfriend, he won't live to tell the tale. I'm not a jealous god, but I don't share my lovers with other men. I can't let his breach of conduct go without consequences, I'm afraid. You can't just break Guest rights without facing some kind of repercussions. The boy must be punished, but I can and will be lenient. His genuine ignorance and youth allow me some leeway. He won't suffer anything permanent, this I assure you.»

Sirzechs bowed very low once more and a quick pointed glare towards his sister and future brother-in-law had both of them bowing low at the waist also

«Thank you for your benevolence and leniency, Lord Mac Lir. I assure you that there will be no more similar incidents in the future. As Maou Lucifer, I swear it.»

Harry nodded politely at Sirzechs, before grabbing Issei firmly by the shoulder and guiding him a bit further away on the side of the pier. Before the Red Dragon Emperor could even try to apologize, Manannan cut him off sharply.

«Be quiet. Even if you were to apologize right now, it's far too late. You broke Guest rights, Mr. Hyoudou. It is a very important custom coming from the Old World and I can't just let this go, even if I wanted to. You need to understand that for every action taken, there are consequences you will have to live with. Your Lust is both your greatest strength and your greatest weakness.

Now, hear my words, for this is the Geas I'm imposing on you. For an entire seven days, exactly one hundred sixty eight hours, starting from the day after your return to Japan, you will be cursed to be unable to look at any unclothed women, be they real or fictitious. If you can't resist the temptation, then you will simply be unable to become erect for the entire time you are staring. This is now your curse, your burden to bear.»

Harry ignored Issei's horrified looks and was the first one to board his coracle.

It was in a somewhat tense silence that everyone eventually boarded the sea god's chariot, which expanded in size all on its own to accommodate the number of passengers. Serafall and Sona were both interested to see the sails and the anchor hoist and rise on their own with only a thought from Manannan, but refused to break the silence. Issei was kept far from the god and his lover to make sure his Lust wouldn't get the best of him once more. It was Scáthach who broke the heavy silence by asking out loud

«Pardon me, but what is going on with…Issei? I apologize, I'm not familiar with eastern names. He yelled something about «naked oppai» then tried to grope me? Does he have a death wish or what? Breaking Guest rights like that…»

She finished, shaking her head with incredulity. The foolishness of youth she guessed.

The answer to her questions came from Ajuka, who commented on the subject like one spoke of the weather

«Hyoudou Issei is a living embodiment of the Cardinal Sin of Lust. He also possesses a particular obsession with breasts. Even as a regular human, he was ruled by it ever since he entered puberty. And now as a Devil, he's even building his fighting style and magical spells around his Sin, since nothing else seems to be working for him or can motivate him long enough to pay attention. His attention deficit and lack of care about anything that is not related to sex is also why he lacks a lot of basic knowledge. He recently created a spell that permits him to destroy the clothing of any woman he managed to grope with the hand holding his Sacred Gear. Nowadays, most women will be much too embarrassed by their sudden nudity to continue fighting.»

The Witch of Dun Scaith was silent for a moment and then spoke again

«Has anyone ever thought of bringing the boy to a brothel and letting the working girls do their job in satiating his lust, at least temporarily? Do those still exist nowadays?»

This time it was Serafall who answered, her tone of voice rather serious, not an ounce of childishness could be heard until the very end

«I'm not so sure about the rest of the world, but in most Western civilisations, the sex industry is rather controversial. Some countries, like Switzerland and Germany, have legalized prostitution. But in Great Britain, Canada, America and Ireland, it's against the law. As for why Issei wasn't taken to a brothel somewhere in the Underworld, I can only guess that Rias-tan selfishly wanted to keep him for herself. I can sort of understand though, he is rather cute.»

She finished with a teasing wink toward the young man in question, which had the effect of making him splutter and stutter in embarrassment all the while making Rias growl audibly in annoyance. Issei was hers, no hussy would get their claws on him! They would sleep together when she would be well and ready and not one minute before!

Sadly, even this brief moment of mirth wasn't enough to entirely rekindle the easy camaraderie that the group had shared prior to Issei's antics. So it was under a somewhat tense silence that the coracle sailed to the entrance of the seaside cavern leading to Heaven. Harry immobilized his vessel and then told his pure Angelic guests

«You would just have to follow the water straight up and you will eventually arrive at your destination. I don't think it should take very long; but unfortunately I can't remember exactly where in Heaven you'll end up. It has been a very long time since I took this path.»

After the Man of the Sea was done talking, Gabriel and Michael had a silent conversation. The pagan god had been nothing but honest and straightforward so far, but could they trust him enough to not mislead them about the shortcut to Heaven?

As if he could hear their thoughts, he couldn't, but he had become quite good at reading others, Harry offered to the pure angelic siblings

«If it can reassure you, I'm willing to swear an oath about my truthfulness, or if you can guarantee the safety of my other passengers, I can even sail you up there myself. Here, let me at least give you a trustworthy guide.»

Harry lost no time in casting the Patronus charm, much to the collective awe of everyone present, with the noted exception of Michael, who narrowed his eyes at the luminous ghost-like stag. He had no intention of risking his sister's fury for a third time, not so soon after his punishment at the hands of his younger siblings. But he would remember the prank for a long time to come. At least the positive aura that was flowing from the magical construct was doing a marvel to soothe the rather tense ambiance. So not everything was lost…

In the end, Michael and Gabriel opted to fly on their own and followed the Patronus, their home wasn't ready yet to welcome such diverse visitors. Uriel and Raphael were holding the Fort so to speak, it was high time to go reassure them that everything was alright. So after one last round of hand shaking, the Angels called upon their wings and started to fly away. They waited to be a bit further in the cavern before letting their Innate Holy aura come back to the front though, to not inconvenience the young Devils.

After Michael and Gabriel were no longer visible, Manannan turned his ship around and sailed out to sea. The silence now was much less tense than before and actually relaxing. Eyes closed, he let himself lean on his beloved, who sat next to him. He knew he was watched closely, the Maous were cunning politicians after all. But he didn't really care at the moment. He needed a bit of tenderness. Feeling her hands in the bird's nest that was his hair- one thing that hadn't changed after his apotheosis - was quite soothing. Without opening his eyes, he summoned a dome of divine energy to cover his coracle, before ordering it to dive. Contrary to the times he travelled to and from the Land of Shadows, there was no primordial darkness between the World of the Living and the World of the Dead.

The transition was so smooth that one minute they were still on the Other Side, the following one they were back in the World of the Living. The only thing the Maous could sense was when Mac Lir closed the door behind him, since he seemingly took the time to close it slowly, as if to make sure he could see if something would try to sneak in or out on his watch. Since there was no longer anything interesting to watch, they could now clearly see that they were under the waters of the Thames. With but a thought from Harry, banks of Féth Fíada mist rose from the river, camouflaging the rise of the coracle from under the water. They surfaced in a great splash, then zigzagged easily and rapidly between the many mundane boats on the water.

All in all, after a smooth ride of about fifteen minutes, they were all ashore once more. Azazel and Shemhazai lost no time splintering from the group, heading away on Charing Cross Road towards the Leaky Cauldron. Shemhazai had mentioned having business matters to attend at Gringotts. Left alone with the Devils, Scáthach and Harry waited politely to see what the remnant of their guests would do. Of course, Harry had lost no time in putting one arm around his lover's waist and she didn't begrudge him that mark of affection. It was still odd for her, a god practicing monogamy and actually sticking to it.

When he saw that the Devils were about to leave, Harry spoke up

«Excuse me, may I have a small moment of your time before you leave, Your Grace Lucifer?»

Sirzechs, still somewhat unused to the British honorifics, took a second longer to answer than usual

«Yes? What do you wish to speak about, Lord Mac Lir?»

Harry put an amused smile on his lips and told the current Lucifer

« I have a small favour to ask of you, Your Grace. Nothing onerous, I assure you. Could you perhaps keep the eldest Phenex boy in the dark a bit longer and let him stay on his assignment to track me down? I greatly enjoyed tweaking his nose the last time we met and I would enjoy doing it again a few more times before the charade is inevitably up.»

Sirzechs blinked with incomprehension for a few seconds, before a rather devilish grin spread on his lips. He answered

«Lord Mac Lir, it will be my pleasure to grant you your request, so long as you share with me the blackmail material you are certain to acquire.»

Harry laughed a bit and said to Sirzechs

«We have a deal.»

Both god and devil enthusiastically shook on it.

Elsewhere in the Underworld, back in Phenex Castle, Ruval Phenex suddenly sneezed for no particular reason, only for his sister Ravel to tell him

«Bless you, Ruval nii-sama.»

He was quick to answer after a few sniffs

«Thank you, Ravel-imouto.»

In the end, it was after a few more polite good-byes that the Devils called upon their magic to teleport away, secure in the fact that Féth Fíada was up to the task of protecting the secrecy of magic from the mundane humans milling around. Harry didn't envy Issei and Rias for one second but had no mercy to give them either. Issei should be able to control his base urges better and Rias should have kept her servant in line before he tried to commit political suicide in front of the other leaders. Oh well, they would hopefully learn from their mistakes and come out better prepared on the other side.

It was his girlfriend who brought Harry out of his musings by asking

«Let's go somewhere to eat, lover, I'm famished.»

Harry hummed in agreement before guiding her towards a good restaurant they had tried and enjoyed a few days ago. During their walk, their formal clothes changed into something much more casual and comfortable. Ahh, it was much better…

Back in Kuoh, Sona, her peerage and the other Maous were quick to make themselves scarce upon their arrival. While Rias' peerage had first wanted to stay as emotional support for their King, Sirzechs was quick to dismiss everyone, except Issei. At least the boy didn't try to escape. Not that it would have done him any good either way. Sirzechs would have simply tracked him down and forcefully brought him back by the collar had he tried. The sound of the clubroom's door closing after Akeno was the last one to reluctantly leave sounded really ominous for Issei and Rias both…Let the ass chewing begin!

XxX
​

Back to the Isle of the Blessed, night had fallen and Lancelot was watching the calm sea. It was weird having a body again, being awake after so long. He was so strong now. And best of all, he no longer felt that world shattering guilt of having made his King into a cuckold by falling in love with and bedding his Queen. Oh, he still felt a twinge of guilt when he thought back on those events, but it was no longer all consuming. His musings were interrupted when he saw a soft glow coming from the sea and creeping closer to the Isle. At first, he thought it was Lord Mac Lir who was coming back with the Witch of Dun Scaith, but the feminine voice humming softly an eerily familiar song and the lack of ships put paid to that assumption.

That song, that voice…Was it possible? Was it really in her power to come here, of all places? Lancelot knew better than almost anyone to never underestimate a woman. After all, the King had knocked him on his ass more often than he would like to admit and she was a woman under those spells. His entire train of thoughts was derailed when his adoptive mother, Lady Vivian of the Lake, came into view. Lancelot was transfixed. She hadn't aged a day since he last saw her centuries ago. She was just as outwordly beautiful as he remembered.

Taken by a sudden urge while being both unwilling and unable to resist, the Knight of the Lake rose to his feet and rushed to her side. He collided with the Fae and thankfully, he had already dismissed his armour beforehand. Laughing and sobbing freely, Lancelot was quick to spin his adoptive mother around, her bell-like laugh at his actions was making his spine tingle.

«Mother! Oh, Mother! I'm so glad to see you again after so long! I missed you so much!»

Vivian let her adoptive son twirl her around for a few more minutes before telling him with a soothing voice

«Enough now, my little Lance. Please, put me down.»

Lancelot openly pouted at hearing his childhood nickname, but did as asked. Not before taking advantage of being much taller than her to deposit a kiss on her forehead though.

Vivian let out a happy sigh. She was glad to see her son after so long. For all her power, she would have been unable to call back her adoptive child from the grave and give him back a simulacra of life as a Heroic Spirit. Just keeping the souls of the Knights of the Round Table from passing on had been the most difficult thing she had ever done. And Manannan had summoned all thirteen of them like it was nothing… Even now it was his power that kept them anchored to reality and he seemingly felt no strain! One more difference between a Great Fae and a Tuatha Dé she mused.

Why must this version of the Man of the Sea insist on being faithful to his partner? She would have given him a nice reward for giving her back her son! Contrary to his predecessor, he was quite easy on the eyes and totally her type! But no! He just had to be in a relationship with the Witch of Dun Scaith of all people! A monogamous god! What's next? Merlin swearing off women to enter priesthood? Vivian chased her maudlin thoughts away. It was no use crying over spilled milk. And her son was currently eying her with confusion, better see to that…

 

[Zephyr_Fauchelevent]

Awake And Alive



Chapter 8
​

Author's Note: Just a quick note here before we began. A new character is described a bit further down in the chapter, so if people wish to see what she really looks like, feel free to PM me for those of you on Fanfiction or ask in a review for those on AO3 and I'll send you the link to the picture. I wish you all a good time reading!

A few days after Kokabiel's execution, down in the Underworld, the Four Maous were meeting each other to not only touch base on matters of governance, but to also take stock of their respective discoveries about Manannan Mac Lir. In their private meeting room located somewhere in the capital city of Lilith, Serafall was the only one pacing around, frowning heavily. The other three kept silent, knowing by now that their female colleague would tell them what was on her mind soon enough. And rightly so, she stopped pacing rather abruptly and told her fellow leaders

«Manannan Mac Lir played us all like a fiddle. He somehow knew that if he showed us too much power, we would be wary of him, reluctant to accept the offered olive branch. But on the other hand, had he shown us too little, we would have taken advantage of him, taking him to the cleaners as it were. That deity was canny enough to prey on our very nature as Devils. He got our attention by acting unlike any of the Celtic deities we have heard about, but in the end, he managed to bypass our guards like it wasn't even there. Such charisma!»

Ajuka stopped fiddling with his tablet only to add his own two cents

«There's no denying that he enjoyed being at the centre of attention. He might not have planned for every single detail, but he was in control from the very beginning. He let us mingle, likely observing us, well hidden behind his magical mist. Then he had fun spooking the kids as he made his grand entrance. Everything was working in his favour. That is, until Hyoudou Issei tried his regular antics on his lover. Good job by the way, Sirzechs, in managing to defuse Mac Lir's temper like that. Otherwise the Geas he put on your future brother-in-law would have likely been far worse.»

Sirzechs openly flinched at that. He honestly pitied Issei and understood his plight; but Ajuka was right, it could have been infinitely worse. And the kid had brought it upon himself to begin with… Maou Lucifer looked towards Falbium to see if there was something he wished to add to this particular subject, but his friend merely shook his head in the negative. The others had said everything that needed to be spoken on the matter at hand. After thinking for a few minutes, Sirzechs asked his closest friends

«So, what do we do about this? Are we going forward with Mac Lir's stated goals or do we continue alone?»

Surprisingly, it was Falbium who took the initiative, a rarely seen fire now burning in his usually apathetic gaze

«I say we take him up on his offer. We literally have nothing to lose and everything to gain. And frankly, the idea of testing myself in a spar against the famed Man of the Sea makes me feel more awake than I ever was in decades. I would love to see Fragarach in action! I would have really loved to see the fight against Kokabiel. I bet it was truly epic!»

XxX
​

While the leadership of the Devils were hashing things out together, on the other side of the largest continent of the Underworld, in the main Grigori fortress, Azazel and Shemhazai were having a similar, yet startlingly different discussion. Both the Governor and Vice-Governor were sipping some sake and discussing the events that happened on the Isle of the Blessed in low tones. It was Shemhazai who spoke first

«He felt much too young to be as ancient as he's supposed to be. You know better than most how the men of the Old World were, Azazel. There were no traces of misogyny in his actions and his words, he was also dressed in an impeccably modern fashion. He took extensive precautions to not harm the humans around him. The Tuatha Dé weren't as bad as some of the other pantheons were with their worshippers in the old days, but Mac Lir was much more careful than I could have ever expected.»

Azazel frowned and pursed his lips before he answered

«That young man was and wasn't Manannan Mac Lir.»

Shemhazai looked at his old friend and waited for him to explain. This time Azazel wasn't baiting him for his own personal amusement, he was gathering his thoughts.

« He was definitely a god, that kind of power simply can't be faked. Only a high ranked Celtic deity could have brought back all the Knights of the Round Table as Heroic Spirits like he did. Summoning and sustaining just one is murder on the magical reserves for even the most powerful of magic users, but he wasn't showing any hint of strain in sustaining all thirteen of them! That's bonafide godhood right there, my friend. But for all that he took the name and the titles, he isn't the original Lord of Capes.

The Manannan I knew would have never taken a British accent for all the gold in the world. He was much too proud of his thick Irish accent. And he wouldn't have used gentlemanly manners with the ladies either, at least not if there wasn't anything worth his while later on. He was much rougher around the edges than what that young man showed. I only met him twice on good terms and we crossed blades a few more times before he vanished without a word. The young man we met was in fact Mac Lir the Second, I'm almost certain of this.»

Shemhazai was rather surprised at hearing that, but had no intention of disproving it. But now that Azazel was mentioning it…The clues gathered together didn't lie.

«What had he been reciting just before he executed Kokabiel? Some kind of mantra?»

The Vice-Governor was frowning heavily in concentration, clearly trying to remember the exact words, before he was broken out of it by Azazel's solemn voice,

«In the name of Manannan of the House of Lir… I, Harry of the House of Potter… Harry… Potter? That name rings a bell somehow…»

Shemhazai had the answer for that one,

«Harry Potter? The only known survivor of the Killing Curse? He was an important figure in the Civil War raging among the magical community of the United Kingdom. So he became a god? Or was he always a god who disguised himself as a wizard? It wouldn't be the first time a pagan god did something like that honestly.»

Azazel frowned some more at that but answered promptly

«Frankly, I don't have the answer at the moment, Shem. We will just have to ask the right questions the next time our friendly neighbourhood Celtic god pops back up for a visit, won't we?»

Shemhazai gave his boss a dirty look for the use of his much hated nickname, but let it go this time. Azazel was right, they would simply have to ask the right questions the next time their paths crossed each other and hope that the Celtic god would be in the mood to answer them. He wasn't foolish enough to go looking for a Tuatha Dé in their own Domains! The first and last time he tried that, he nearly made a widow out of his wife!

XxX
​

In a different plane of existence, In the native Otherworld of the Tuatha Dé, existed the isle of Tír na nÓg. That particular isle was the heart of Manannan Mac Lir's kingdom, even if he had been absent for centuries. During his absence, Titania, the Queen of the Faes, had taken it upon herself to be the god's regent. But even here, in this Otherworld, change couldn't be stopped. The sleepy little hamlet that had sprung up around the Man of the Sea's Keep was now a thriving port town that the locals had named River's End, since the largest river of Tír na nÓg flowed through the town and into the sea. Like any being with a lick of power in the various Celtic Otherworlds, the Fae Queen had felt the return of Mac Lir among the living.

As a dutiful Regent, she had immediately made preparations to put everything in order for the greatly awaited return of their King. Only, the Man of the Sea still hadn't showed up and it had been months! Her patience had limits. But she couldn't just send a messenger to him with a summons. No, no, no. He was their King and she was just his Regent even if she was a Queen in her own right. He was still her hierarchical superior, with her being only a High Fae and him a king of the Tuatha Dé. But it didn't mean that she didn't intend to make him pay her back for her dutiful service during all those centuries. It was with that thought in mind that she ordered the creation of a very specific runic array in the town square. Their people had really taken to Irish tap dancing soon after it was invented, in the early sixteenth century. So the square's renovation where most dances were held would be well received even if there was a not so well hidden purpose behind it.

From there she would proceed to make the Ferryman of the Dead come back Home, come hell or high water. His people needed him. His so-called «vacation» had taken enough time as it was. And what better way to get a god's attention than by prayers coming from his faithful? Titania was simply going to make sure he couldn't ignore them. Not if he wanted to still have a kingdom left when he finally deigned to come back after around five hundred years of absence! After finishing her daily load of paperwork, The Queen of all Faes left her office behind to take a stroll around the Keep. After she came across a mirror, she took some time to look at her reflection.

Her long snow white hair was falling in waves all the way down her upper arms, even if her flower crown tried to hold it somewhat. She had a beautiful oval shaped face with pale blue eyes, kissable rosy lips which contrasted with her pale immaculate skin. Titania knew she was gorgeous, beautiful even, but from what she heard through the grapevine, this new incarnation of the Man of the Sea wouldn't be fooled by a pretty face and a simple show of cleavage. She would have to get crafty and creative to keep him where he belonged, for it was not that easy to fool a Tuatha Dé of his caliber. But Titania relished the thought of finally having a challenge. Leaving the mirror behind, she slowly but surely made her way to her private parlor, where her meal would be delivered. No matter the Realm, paperwork was the bane of every leader worth their salt and she would take advantage of any rest she could get.

XxX
​

Over the next few weeks, Harry's time was divided between visits to his old friends, visits to see Teddy, exploring the various sites around the British isles and the most entertaining of the lot, testing Ruval Phenex's patience in order to find his last nerve. The Phenex Heir had stumbled upon the Celtic couple during their various excursions at least half a dozen times so far and each of them had him on the backfoot. To be fair to the pureblood Devil, Harry wasn't masking his presence. In fact, he was intentionally broadcasting it just to see who would answer.

Just this morning, Brigid popped in for a quick visit just to say «Hello» and to warn him that Lugh was awake and currently looking for a good fight. Ugh, just what he needed. Having to deal with this particular battle nut. While Harry was now always up for a good tussle, he wasn't so inclined to battle day in and day out for weeks on end! But in Lugh's opinion, a fight wasn't worth his time if it lasted less than forty-eight hours. So at least the daredevil wouldn't challenge random citizens, or at least Harry hoped he wouldn't… Perhaps the Leaders of the Three Biblical Factions knew someone who would be up to entertaining the Celtic sun god? Elsewhere, in the Underworld's Bael territory and in the Dimensional Gap's City of Oz, Sairaorg Bael and Vali Lucifer sneezed at the same time.

All the previous encounters between them had always been short on purpose, Harry not wanting to humor the stuck-up Devil with factual answers to his questions. Scáthach, while looking stoic in public, had as much fun as him giving Ruval and his Peerage the run around. Harry had finally been able to take some blackmail material after he and his beloved lured their tail all the way to a live outdoor concert. Most of their faces had been absolutely priceless when the band currently on stage started to play a remarkably good rendition of «Angel with a Shotgun»!

Buying that high quality camera had been a very good investment. His Grace Lucifer would most likely enjoy those photos. The question remained though: how was he supposed to send them? It's not like he could send an owl to the Underworld or drop them at the nearby post office…could he? And going all the way to Japan just to drop them on the Gremory girl felt rather distasteful… Not to mention that the gods of Takamagahara would be on the lookout for his presence this time around…Oh well, he would figure it out sooner or later.

Back to the matter at hand, It seemed that Ruval and his people didn't particularly enjoy the song. Too bad, it was quite good. Perhaps it was a tad mean to keep switching positions and making them navigate constantly through the crowd? Oh swell, it had been amusing at the time. It wasn't like he owed anything to the Phenex Family anyway, so his conscience was clean. And of course, just as Ruval was closing in, Harry waved him goodbye in a rather cheeky manner before vanishing in a swirl of mist with his lover in tow. Oh yes, there was much fun to be had at Ruval and his peerage's expense. He wondered if all the Pillar Devils were this amusing to mess with? If so, a trip to the Underworld in the near future would be worth the hassle.

XxX
​

About three weeks later, back to the island of Tír na nÓg, Titania was ready to begin her experiment to call their wayward King home. The runic array had been masterfully etched in the town square and she found no fault in it even after a thorough inspection. The Runemasters had done fantastic work and were adequately rewarded. The dancers and musicians were ready to begin at the Regent's command, all of them giddy to be able to help in getting Lord Mac Lir's attention. They would have likely been ready earlier, but there were so many dances and melodies to choose from, so they had to narrow down a reasonable selection. Once the choice was made and the participants were ready to begin, Titania sat down on the throne-like chair erected in the stands nearby and gave the signal for them to begin.

The music and dance began slowly, since they were testing the waters. Never before had the Sidhe tried to combine music, dance and prayers together. For all they knew, it might not work. The Runic Array worked in theory, but it had never been tested before, since it was one of a kind. Slowly but surely, the music sped up and the performance actually got better. Nothing specific seemed to be happening at first, but without warning, an ethereal green light slowly but surely came out of the runes embedded in the town square. The light seemed to frolic between the dancers and even took various indistinct shapes before shooting straight to the sky and vanishing between the Realms only after the performance had ended.

Titania permitted herself a small satisfied smile. So far, the experiment was a great success. Now they would just have to keep it up every other day to entice their wayward King back home. He would come back, she was certain. If not, well she would just have to go with her Plan B. Not everyone on the supernatural grapevine was enthusiastic about the return of the Tuatha Dé. Some elements wouldn't mind being paid to go cause trouble to those headache inducing deities, like a few surviving Fomorians…

It was rather distasteful, but she was willing to go the extra mile if it meant bringing their King back home where he should be. While Féth Fíada made pinpointing his exact position impossible, the Fair Folk still living on Earth could feel his presence in a general area and report it to her. He was much subtler than before, she had to give him that, but his presence was still leaking. That he was accompanied by the Witch of Dun Scaith almost everywhere he was going was regrettable, but she could adjust her plans. A monogamous pagan deity romancing a god-slayer. Truly unbelievable. This modern era was so strange…

XxX
​

The energy gathered by the prayers of the townsfolk of River's End had slowly but surely made its way back to Earth. While it wasn't intelligent per see, it was moved by some kind of collective will. Some unknown force wanted it to go to the right deity. Harry wasn't suspecting anything, Scáthach and he were currently having a friendly dinner at Luna and Hermione's place when the light came from nowhere and collided with him violently. Of course, it was enough to send him, with the chair he was sitting on, to the ground. The strange light seemingly purred like a cat, loving itself against the Celt god's chest before it seeped inside his being without leaving a trace. Just before Harry could get up and reassure both his old friends and lover that he was fine, his power surged violently around him without any previous warnings.

Scáthach was quick to act the second she saw that her lover had no control over his power and that it was negatively affecting his all too mortal friends. She put herself between them and used her own considerable power as a crude barrier of sorts, while barking at him

«Harry, put yourself back together! You're going to kill Luna and Hermione if you don't bring your power to heel!»

While trying to deal with the fiery green aura that was erupting from all over his skin, Harry barked back, with a hint of panic

«I'm trying! I'm trying! But the flow of energy simply won't stop! I don't understand what's going on!»

In the end, Harry had to teleport far away from any human settlement, this strange power surge coming out of nowhere wasn't looking like it would be slowing down anytime soon. So absorbed into his trial, he hadn't even noticed that he hadn't used apparition for his quick vanishing act. It took the better part of two hours for the surge to die down and a few minutes after that for Harry to realize that his base power had somehow grown. Not by leaps and bounds by any means, but it was still a considerable difference. Keeping a tight lid on his power to not overly affect the human populace had just become more difficult it seemed. As if it was easy to begin with, ugh. Just as he was considering going back to pick-up his girlfriend, she surprised him by emerging from a shadow nearby. Blinking with clear surprise, Harry spoke up

«Now that's a new one. I thought only Hades and his children could do that?»

Scáthach scoffed derisively at him for the question but answered all the same

«I'm the Queen of the Land of Shadows, Manannan. I could travel like that ever since the Tuatha Dé first settled on the island that would become known as Eire. I don't have much good to say about those fools drunk on their own power and the serial rapists down in what became known as Greece.»

Harry didn't ask for more information. The Hellenistic pantheon in general didn't particularly interest him, except perhaps Poseidon and a few members of his court. He wouldn't mind talking shop with a fellow friendly sea deity in the near future…

In the following weeks, the same scenario happened repeatedly. There was no rhyme or reason to it, but sometimes those power surges had the worst timing ever! One late evening, a surge arrived just when he and Scáthach started to be intimate, killing the mood instantly. Both went to sleep rather frustrated that night. The straw that broke the camel's back so to speak happened while he was travelling to the Isle of the Blessed to go check on the Knights of the Round. The surge of power hit him like a bullet train just as he closed the door back to the World of the Living, making him lose control of his divine powers once more. While his aura was once more visible, Sguaba Tuinne stopped advancing and immediately started sinking towards the sea floor.

This time, Harry had the good idea of sending the extra power he received directly towards the Knights, replenishing their diminishing pools of mana and erasing all traces of fatigue for all thirteen of them. Their contracts allowed them to use his extremely vast pools of energy to sustain themselves and then some, but only Lancelot and Mordred were the kind to draw more mana from him than the strict minimum when they weren't in a fight. It was a good thing he was alone during this trip, or else his beloved would currently be drowning, since even if he had put a dome over his coracle, his sudden loss of control would have made it vanish. He could breathe underwater and endure the pressure of the depths, but not her. After marshalling his powers back under his control with an annoyed growl, the Man of the Sea quickly breached the surface. Once on shore, he shooed the curious Knights further away. He needed answers and the best person to give them to him quickly was…

«Vivianne of the Lake! I summon you!»

Using his divine authority, Harry called for his subordinate. He was satisfied when she answered quickly. She arose from the Sea of Eden five minutes later and made her way to dry land with haste. Once in front of her god, she curtsied in a formal manner and while avoiding his direct gaze, she spoke to him with deference

«You called for me, my King?»

She was no fool, even if she resented being rudely summoned like that, Mac Lir was not in a very good mood presently. Old friend or not, she would most assuredly suffer unpleasant consequences should she start being difficult or insubordinate right now.

Harry started to pace around the sandy beach, his thoughts kilometres away. Then he snapped back to the present and explained the situation

«These last few weeks, I kept receiving surges of energy at the most random of times, making me lose control over my powers and my aura. The last one was minutes ago, as I was travelling from the World of the Living to the World of the Dead. I need your help in finding where those surges are coming from so I can get to the bottom of things. It's becoming harder and harder to not unduly affect the mortals around me while I'm on Earth. I fear that I will accidentally kill one of my loved ones due to an uncontrolled surge if things continue in that vein.»

After being permitted to approach and to examine him, Vivianne's nose scrunched in a rather adorable manner while she was concentrating. Harry might be in a committed relationship, but he wasn't blind for all that. The Fae was a very beautiful woman, with bountiful curves in all the right places. He understood why his predecessor was so obsessed with her. His thoughts veered on another subject. He still didn't know what had caused the bad blood between his subordinate and his lover, since neither wanted to answer his questions. But he knew better than to press either of them. Vivianne, while lacking in raw power, was quite the crafty sorceress. The fact that Merlin was still imprisoned centuries after the fall of Camelot was proof enough. She might find a way to stick an unpleasant curse on him given enough time and motivation.

As for Scáthach, she was a peerless fighter and more than able to fight against him on equal grounds even when he was going full throttle. Her runic magic may lack in versatility compared to other kinds of spellcraft, but she had untold millennia of experience to draw upon. What scared him the most though, were her spears. If she managed to give him a mortal wound with either of them, he was a goner. He knew she had no reason to try and kill him, but with such a woman, you never know. Harry was pretty sure he had her measure by now, they spent the last five years living together after all. So with all that considered, when they both told him to stop nosing around about that particular subject, he chose the safest and most sane thing to do and dropped it.

His musings came to an end when Vivianne was wrapping up her examination. Knowing better than to beat around the bush due to his current mercurial mood, The Lady of the Lake shared her findings without prompting.

«Your Highness, what you experienced was in fact a concentrated form of the energy you would normally receive from individual prayers. I don't exactly understand how it was possible to condense it so much, but whoever did that knew how to work the bond linking a deity and his faithful. It is in my personal opinion that someone is calling you home, since the surges are all coming from Tír na nÓg.»

Harry frowned heavily at hearing that. He had avoided Tír na nÓg deliberately over the past few months, trying to regain missing memories of what it was like before his predecessor left. But to his displeasure, with the merge finally complete, there was a distinct lack of information about the subject. It was like the original Mac Lir had grown so weary and bored of the place that he simply left it in the hands of someone else with the firm intent of never going back. But it seems that someone was trying to get his attention and had succeeded. After his tumultuous school career, Harry had tried to develop his capacity to plan beforehand. To be honest, It was still a work in progress, but he was a bit less impulsive than before...

After a short silence, he said in a more amiable tone of voice

«Thank you for coming so promptly and for finding the answer to my questions, Vivianne. You're dismissed.»

The Lady of the Lake curtseyed once again, then answered

«As you wish, Lord Mac Lir.»

In no time at all, the water faery turned around and walked back from where she came from. After she vanished back to her own Realm or wherever she was before his call, he tore his gaze away from the horizon. Frowning, Harry conjured a simple wooden chair and sat on it to reflect on what his next move would be. His thinking was interrupted after a few minutes by Mordred, who had her helmet off. The diminutive knight was looking somewhat insecure, which was odd since she usually was quite boisterous.

«Hum, Lord Mac Lir? »

Harry blinked a bit refocusing on his Servant and answered her calmly

«Yes? Is there something wrong, Mordred?»

«Hum, I was wondering if we could come with you to Tír na nÓg? I believe I can speak for all my comrades-in-arms that the Isle of the Blessed, while beautiful, is utterly boring. There's absolutely nothing to do here and picking fights with my fellow knights for shits and giggles became dull weeks ago.»

Now that was an entertaining idea he hadn't considered before, taking the Knights with him. Agravain's spy expertise would be most welcome in figuring out his kingdom's current political climate. And the others' martial skills likely wouldn't be amiss either if things turned sour. Seeing as the diminutive knight was waiting for an answer he told her

«You make a valid point. With Kokabiel gone, there is no need to keep you all here. Very well, all aboard then. I have to go back to pick up my lover though, she would be quite cross with me if I were to leave her behind.»

Soon enough, all thirteen knights climbed aboard Sguaba Tuinne, with the divine chariot having become much bigger to accommodate all those new passengers. Harry lost no time in putting a dome of divine magic over the top of his coracle and mentally ordering it to dive once they were far enough from the dock. The door between the Worlds of the Living and the Dead could be opened on the surface, but it was easier and less taxing to do so underwater. Also it was easier that way to make sure there would be no stowaways looking to flee on either side. Once back in the World of the Living, Harry had his coracle surface on the Thames, well hidden by his magical mist. Harry had just enough time to lower the protective dome and immobilize it near one bank of the river, before his lover vaulted acrobatically on board. After discussing things together, they were in accord that it was time to go look at what was happening in his ancestral kingdom. But beforehand, they would just have to make a pit stop on the Isle of Man.

Harry had promised his dear friends a trip to one of the Celtic Otherworlds and he would keep his word. One quick warp later from the Thames to the Irish sea, they were now making good time towards his island. It was quite a nice day and the breeze was rather lovely, so they sailed on the surface at ludicrous speed. Far too soon, they moored in the marina and Féth Fíada was up to the task to make them utterly uninteresting. From there it was a real whirlwind of activity. As usual, Hermione wasn't happy that Harry's impulsive nature made him spring this trip on her by surprise, but she couldn't deny that going to Tír na nÓg was an opportunity of a lifetime that she would be a fool to miss. Finding Luna while Hermione was busy packing was both easy and difficult. He could feel her just fine but he still had to pinpoint her exact location.

For some reason, she was sitting on the roof of Hermione's bookstore, watching the clouds or was it the horizon? Harry wasn't certain. Just as he was pondering conjuring some water to splash her to get her attention, she snapped out of her trance and waved at him. Before he could do or say anything, Luna recklessly jumped from her perch and it was only his supernatural reflexes that allowed him to easily catch her and the fact that the building wasn't all that high. It didn't mean he wasn't going to give her the stink eye for her stunt though, which he proceeded to do but was entirely ignored. Typical.

Luna was Luna. There were no other words he could really use to describe her. After dropping her to the ground, she zeroed in on Bedivere and started to rain questions on him.about a multitude of subjects, forcing him to answer quickly, much to the amusement of his fellow Knights. Harry let her do as she pleased for a few more minutes before telling her with a fond smile

«Enough, Luna. Leave poor Bedivere alone will you? We're going on an extended trip to my ancestral kingdom, shouldn't you go make preparations for it? You can ask him your questions while on the road, so to speak.»

Luna pouted a bit and tried the infamous puppy dog eyes, but Harry held firm. If his favourite reporter got her way, they wouldn't leave for Tír na nÓg for days if not weeks.

«Oh, poo. You're such a killjoy, Harry. Fine, fine, I'll play the responsible adult for now. But there better be pudding after that or else…!»

Then to mess with her friend, she added more sway to her hips, smiling widely when she heard him groan. Yup, she still had it! Luna wasn't about to get between him and his girlfriend, but it didn't mean she couldn't flaunt her womanly attributes for teasing purposes when she knew he couldn't help but to look.

XxX
​

It took a while, but eventually the entire group trouped back aboard Manannan's Divine Chariot for a trip to the unknown. They sailed until they were far away from any piece of land before stopping. To open a door to his kingdom, he needed to use Fragarach. His predecessor had long ago separated Tír na nÓg from the Human world after he caught his wife having her way with the Hound of Ulster. Calling his blade from his pocket dimension, Harry simply held it aloft before slashing it across the air. A seafoam green energy blade escaped from the edge of Fragarach, cutting a door between realities. They were just about to cross when a source of powerful demonic energy appeared overhead. From out of nowhere, Ruval Phenex was now «standing» between them and the portal.

The Pureblood Devil was flying through the air with pyroclastic wings sprouting from his back, trying to look formidable and/or intimidating. Before Harry could ask him why he was blocking them, Ruval spoke first, tone somewhat harsh and uncompromising.

«That is quite enough. Kindly close back that portal and turn around. Your lover and you have made a fool out of me for the last time. You will go back to dry land and you will answer my questions or else I will call my entire peerage and we will expel you both from those shores, by force if necessary.»

In trying to back up his threat, Ruval flared out his considerable power, which was much higher than the teaser the Phenex heir had called upon during their first meeting. Not that it was all that threatening to Harry as he was now. Having better things to do than to humor the so-called supernatural overseer of the British Islands, the Man of the Sea commanded a huge wave to form and sent the wannabe firebird into the drink. When Ruval surfaced hacking and coughing, it was to see Sguaba Tuinne pass through the portal only for it to shut down right after. What Ruval hadn't noticed and wouldn't know for a while longer, his fall into the Irish sea was caught on picture. It seems that Tristan's talent for archery could be used for photography as well. The red headed knight had managed to take many shots in a few seconds. The blackmail folder for His Grace Lucifer was growing neatly.

They appeared on the other side, on an eerily calm sea, little to no wind, no waves. The sea was like a mirror. The sky was mostly clear, barring a few clouds here and there. At the North-North-West horizon, they could distantly see the island of Tír na nÓg. The sheer quality of the magic in the air was intoxicating. Here, humanity hadn't subjugated the World. In fact, the Fair Folk did their very best to live in symbiosis with their Realm instead. All those aboard the Coracle were silent as they approached the fishing port near the river's mouth. Seeing the place deserted was disconcerting, Harry had expected the port to be a beehive of activity since it was such a nice day out there. But it worked for him and his companions just as well.That way they could explore a bit before being roped into any kind of shenanigans by the locals. Their little troupe came ashore one after the other. The Knights took a discreet defensive formation around Hermione and Luna, since among their group, those two were the most vulnerable.

Their contractor and his lover were more than capable of handling themselves against whatever was awaiting them. Luna and Hermione were magical humans, thus more fragile. They took a cobbled path leading away from the harbor, only to finally hear the sounds of musical instruments. Much further inland, they could see a large imposing Keep and closer to the hill they were currently standing upon, they could see a thriving town, one of those that could often be seen in the countryside of Ireland. But what got everyone's attention was first a group of villagers wearing what looked like tap shoes and were gearing up for some kind of performance in the town square. Further away, sitting on a wooden throne like chair on a dais, was a woman with an ethereal beauty observing the proceedings with clear interest. Harry's sixth sense also told him that she was an extremely powerful Fae, so he might be looking at their Queen for all he knew.

The dancers and musicians seemed to be waiting for her signal before starting. Harry had to admit to being curious, so he was in no hurry to move from his spot. But sadly he wouldn't have the chance to stay inconspicuous for long. The Fae had somehow discovered his presence, since now she was clearly looking at him. It was kind of his fault, he hadn't thought of hiding his presence at all. Seeing her expectant gaze, Harry let out a small sigh before slowly making his way down the hill towards the town itself, his hands in his jeans' pockets. As he was passing by, the inhabitants were all staring at him with a strange mix of hope and wariness. Once he was at the foot of the dais, the Fae got up gracefully from her throne and walked down to meet him. She looked at him intensely and silently for a few seconds before smiling somewhat vindictively before saying out loud so everyone would hear her

«Citizens of River's End! Hear my voice! The King Has Come Home!»

Harry was then assaulted by a cacophony of voices, each repeating over and over

«LONG LIVE THE KING!»
«LONG LIVE THE KING!»
«LONG LIVE THE KING!»
«LONG LIVE THE KING!»

Then the Fae spoke again over the cheering, voice light and airy but with a certain tone of schadenfreude barely hidden behind it

«All Hail, Manannan Mac Lir, Lord of Capes, King of Tír na nÓg, God of the Sea and Ferryman of the Dead! Hail!»

The mantra was repeated multiple times by his exuberant people

«Hail! Hail! Hail! Hail! Hail!»

Harry had only one word to say to all that

«Bugger…»

Spoiler: Titania, Queen of the Faes and Regent of Tír na nÓg