Eat Me CH21

I drifted in a black expanse filled with endless stars distant and forever out of reach. They were like dreams; by the time their light reached me, they had already burned out. More stars than I’ve seen on earth hovered in the sky like jewels and gold waiting to be plucked from the sky. But, unfortunately, it was fool’s gold. Those stars were dead, and the only ones I would ever hold in my hand were of my own making.

Seeing those stars and knowing my own thoughts, I felt that I must have been in deep shit. Rarely did I get philosophic when I could be arrogant or sarcastic. My metaphor always made me feel melancholic. 11 types went into my attempt to rise without assistance. At 10, the gate was practically in shambles, but 11 made it disappear. Once there had been a single path to ascend until I overstepped and lost myself in infinity. These stars were potential paths, but their end had gone out long before their way had ever reached me.

“Stupify,” a beam of red light shot out from the tip of a wand I had previously destroyed. On instinct, I activated skate and closed the distance. No beams or complicated weapons came to hand, only the cold steel of a combat knife and the dull buzzing of rotating qi blades. When I closed in, I saw the mirror image of my stolen face.

I cut before the information processed. Winning came first, and everything else can be thought about later. The boy’s arm and wand came free, and the boy screamed. I took hold of the elder wand and felt its spiritual weight.

Wizards told stories about the artifact for generations dreaming about the ultimate wand. For every generation, the tale of this wand grew until it resembled something like a noble phantasm from the fate series. Holding it made the weapon’s ire known. I destroyed its physical vessel, and it wanted revenge. Yet, at the same time, it made promises and even told me that I was different. No other wielder had rejected it so readily like I had. This time I squeezed the weapon and willed its destruction with all my cultivation base behind my desire. The wand shook before cracks appeared in its spiritual form.

“Stop, don’t do it; she’s just lonely.” Harry Potter’s shade said.

“When I integrated, you must have absorbed enough of my uncontrolled qi to form a pseudo-spiritual vessel. As my control increased, I'm sure you had less qi to absorb yourself. That also explains why my growth has felt slow since coming here. At first, I thought it was because of how weak this world felt, but no, it was a parasite.” I said.

“It's my body; if anything, you’re the parasite,” Harry said.

I snickered. “The world doesn’t need an everyman wizard to save the day. So what are you going to do, use Gryffindor spirit and a can-do attitude to fight sentient starships?” I said.

“The world hardly needs a savior such as you. I’ve watched you mind control people and twist them into knots. You don’t care if some die so long as their deaths don’t mess up your grand plan. Well, you can forget about any of that. You aren’t there anymore, and soon, neither of us will be able to go back. I can’t take the body from you, but I can keep you from going back to it.” Harry said.

I shrugged and laid back and stared up at the stars. “Congratulations, you’ve single-handedly doomed your world to extinction by the reapers. Oh well, nothing for it. I’ll just wait here until the system puts me in another body.” I said.

“You can’t be serious,” Harry said.

“That’s your godfather Harry. I’m Red.” I said.

“What about Cinder? Don’t you care about her?” Harry said.

“We’ve only known each other for a few years. I was hoping to continue knowing Cinder for a few centuries. Those giantesses were going to grow into real beauties too. Not to mention a possibility of a sexy Hermione Granger. But most of the wizarding world should recover. The phoenixes have enough mind-controlled humans to complete the project. So Hermione may have a better life than if she had been born in a normal wizarding world.” I said.

“I don’t believe you all that blood on your hands, and it's like it never mattered to you,” Harry said.

“What do you want from me? I can only be invested when I have a chance to reap what I sow. The hand is drawn, and the field is set; my strategy is in place, but I won’t see any of it. I had looked forward to putting out the fires and fighting those ancient evils as they appeared. Maybe there were some ancient super dragons or something I could fight. But, unfortunately, now I will never know.” I said.

“It's not too late; let me take over, and you can advise me,” Harry said.

“What’s wrong, scared of dying? I would like to say you're going to a better place, but that would be a lie. Nothing is waiting for you, and those lights you see are a lie. The light they produced has long since faded, and one day there will only be darkness.” I said.

“Expecto Patronus,” Harry said, and a glowing disk of light appeared in front of Harry’s hands.

“I prefer your more intelligent or inventive counterparts. The super, human-shaped Patronus that can destroy dementors would be preferable. But don’t worry if the system doesn’t take me out of here; I can just find other bodies to possess. My control over my qi is enough to survive death.” I said.

There was a rumble in the distance; red lightning crackled, and a dark shape approached. I tossed him the elder wand and prepared myself for battle. The being approaching just under lightspeed was something I recognized from the mass effect universe.

“What is that thing?” Harry asked.

In my opinion, hideous, an abomination, the death of trillions, and a monument of fear were all great answers, but my personal feelings on the matter were different. While it was metal and the screaming consciousnesses of billions welded together into a single biotic form, I saw it as nothing more than a stone in the road. While reapers were scary on paper and conceptually powerful, I wasn’t impressed. The screaming clawing mass of minds were loosely attached with only their pain and screams binding them together. The shock of their transformation from sentients to reaper AI RAM had mutilated them spiritually. While the gestalt mind of the reaper must have been truly formidable on the physical plane, to me, it felt underwhelming.

I laid back and gazed up at the stars to capitalize on my feelings on the matter. Each was distant and almost impossible to reach but seemingly near enough to grasp. I decided to wait and shed a few tears for Cinder after leaving.

“Is this why you’ve done everything?” Harry asked.

I turned my head to the side to see the starship approaching. The classic reaper blurting noise couldn’t be heard here. We were in space with no atmosphere to transfer sound. Only our spiritual connections allowed us to communicate. In that same vein, the screaming minds of the reaper were the only thing we could hear from it. While the reaper was busy indoctrinating our body, my mind was on a higher plane, and Harry was my plus 1. But, of course, when we returned, that would be another matter.