Raven hummed a soft tune to himself as he stared at the two horns laying before him, the ones he had ripped off from Vallfor.
Each one still practically pulsed with a dark power, not evil, but dark. Was the daemon evil? Extremely so, but was his power itself evil? No.
Raven also knew that Vallfor while strong, was not such a big threat that he was feared by all. For all his claims of killing the third, and scaring away the fourth, which Raven had confirmed with Zelretch, Vallfor wasn't mighty.
The Third Magician, Master of Heavens Feel, was not a combat oriented person. They had more of a support style to them. They could cast unlimited enhancing spells, to push people to their limit and beyond.
For the third didn't get any major powers, their soul was elevated into something greater and more like a perpetual motion machine. They had an unlimited source of magic energy. Their amount would never run out. They were also virtually immortal, their soul most likely was laundering about somewhere waiting to acquire a new body. Unless it was destroyed anyway.
"Less said about the forth." Raven mused with a groan as he lifted the horns and narrowed his eyes. Images of items he could craft them into passing through his mind before a brilliant idea formed in his head with a cackle escaping him as he walked over to his forge, he would personally forge these by hand.
"Time to begin." He smiled as the forge ignited as he approached, scorching heat burning hot enough that Raven was somewhat effected. Brief amounts of sweat dotted his head and arms before vanishing as his body adapted.
•~~~~~•
In a large meeting room several gods of death sat around as they chatted confused. They had all been summoned by Lady Death, but no mention of why.
"It's not the century meeting time yet is it? I could have sworn that we weren't due to convene for another 17 years." Anubis said as he leaned back in his chair, his hands clasped behind his head.
"Not that I'm aware of." Yama said with a frown.
"It must be serious if our lady called us here." Izanami said with a frown as she wished she could be sleeping on Raven's head right now.
"I hope it's nothing too bad, for all of us to be called." Ereshkigal said with worry.
"When was the last time we were all called together like this?" Veles said as they racked their brain.
"The black plague." Hel said as she crossed her arms and closed her eyes recalling all the work back then, her fellow gods of death all groaned at the reminder of that amount of work.
"It does me well to see you all healthy." A gentle voice spoke as shadows appeared around the chair at the end of the table in the room and collected into a female form. This was Lady Death, and in a rare moment she took on a physical form in the mortal world instead of her usual shadowy form.
"My lady!" All the gods stood and bowed a small bow in greeting to their master.
"I won't even say it anymore, I'll cut to the chase. Souls are going missing, not the usual reincarnation issue, I sorted that out with those beings already. No, this is different. The souls of all races are going missing and not going to their intended afterlives. One moment they are there, the next gone." Death said with a frown as she felt another soul go missing from her grasp.
"My lady, I don't know if it is relevant, but the daemons are making a return, could they have a hand in this?" Izanami asked unsure as all the other gods in attendance stared at her in shock.
"The daemons are back!? Yahweh was supposed to have wiped them out!" Yama said in horror. Their fellow gods of death whispered about in agreement.
"Perhaps, tell me about your encounter with them." Death said
"Well I was hanging out with a friend-"
"Lover!" Hades coughed out unable to help himself and tried to look as innocent as a skeleton can. Izanami glared at him as a few of the gods chuckled and some looked shocked she took another lover on after Izanami.
"Hoho, little Izanami going for the big guns, do not worry my dear, I'm very aware of your actions with the mysterious magician." Death said with a smile, though her eyebrow twitched a single time before it was like it never happened.
"Well yes, anyways, he disappeared sensing something weird and I teleported to him and found him staring at daemons around a magic circle, unfortunately, or perhaps I should say fortuneally, he likes to play with his food. He was distracted by them, and so was I admittedly, and the summoning worked and Vollfor, was summoned into the world again after so long. Raven still played around with him before eventually getting serious and easily destroying him in a single attack." Izanami recounted as she used magic to show the event.
"That is concerning, I cannot sense the soul of Vallfor at all, so whoever is responsible is not limited in choice." Death said with a frown.
"Could the Daemon Queen have found a way to hold the souls of her servants from you my lady?" Hel asked as she pondered on the coming future.
"Perhaps, but I would still be able to sense the soul of the daemon general, normally I would just spread myself around this universe fully, but I am having to draw parts of myself to another universe due to some idiotic brothers in flannel." Death said in annoyance before she sighed.
"Here are my orders, send your minions, servants and wherever you can spare to scour the planet, I want everywhere explored, if you find anything… summon me. I wish to make my ire known." Death said with a glare.
"Yes my lady!" The gods in charge of afterlife's shouted in sync.
"Good, you are all dismissed besides Hades." Death said as the gods all vanished in their own unique ways.
"My lady?" Hades asked confused.
"Hades, I have a mission for your son. My chosen one in the near future will encounter a Tom Marvalo Riddle, attempting to resurrect himself, and an item of importance to me will be in the chest of that man. He is too rip it out and protect it till I come to claim it." Death ordered.
"Yes my lady, but what is the item?" Hades asked and Death had a little grin.
"The resurrection stone." Death said simply and fell apart into shadows and red eyes that merged with the shadows in the room.
"Oh boy." Hades groaned as he knew that giving Raven of all people the resurrection stone was a promise of an interesting future. Would he abuse it, almost undoubtedly. Would he do anything bad with it? Possibly.
"Good luck souls." Hades murmured to himself and vanished in shadows.
•~~~~~•
Raven let a small cackle free as he stared at the pitch black daggers resting in his hands, they were beautiful. Silver Greek runes covered the blades as they momentarily glowed with a fierce maroon color.
"These will do nicely." Raven nodded to himself pleased as he wove a small incantation as the daggers were replaced with a small black gift box. A wave of his finger had a red ribbon appear and wrap itself around the box. He wove a basic protection spell on the box and then stored it into his pocket dimension.
"This is an odd feeling." Raven gripped his chest as he felt like something shattered inside of him, some kind of binding.
The pain from it felt like his very being was shattering, crumbling into pieces, the pain sent him falling to his knees as one hand gripped his chest so hard his clothes started tearing apart, his other hand was crushing the ground of his workshop so hard the floor was shattering.
Then all of a sudden it vanished, all the pain was gone. In that instant he had numerous detection spells going off and scanning himself. Each read it as him in peak condition.
"What just happened?" He asked himself aloud confused before sighing as he decided to take a small trip to the faelands to read on fae conditions. Surely a library such as the one in Kennis City would have all the information he would need.
•~~~~~•
Rose Potter was nervous as she paced back and forth inside her private dorm room. She was trying to draw up the courage to ask Raven Inanis to be her Yule Ball date, Professor Flitwick having just sprung it on her that she HAD to have a date.
She wouldn't just go with just anyone, couldn't go with just anyone. She only wanted a single person, or she wouldn't go at all. The heart wants what the heart wants.
The fear of asking out the person she has had a crush on this whole time has her heart beating hard, especially for such an event, though she supposed for him it would be just another event.
"Just who I wanted to see." A very welcome and unwelcome voice spoke and Rose slowly turned to see the fae himself, Raven Inanis, approaching her with a small smile, her heart didn't totally just speed up, and if any mind reader was hearing her thoughts all they'd hear is screaming.
"Raven." Rose tried to keep her calm and hope her face wasn't turning red at the moment. Seeing the slightly raised eye of Raven, it seems like she did in fact fail at fully keeping herself physically calm.
"Apprentice, you seems… elevated." Raven chose after a brief pause, and she realized he could hear her heart beating at mach 6.
"Just some brief exercise." She said and he rolled his eyes in response, but then smirked as he held his hands out as a box appeared in his hands, a gift box. A small black box with red wrappijc ribbon.
"Whatever you say little ember, open this up." Raven said as he handed her the box, and she blinked in confusion, and a little hesitatance, he had a particular habit of giving gift boxes that exploded into pranks, nothing harmful, just annoying. "Don't worry, it's nothing harmful, actually something quite pleasant." He smirked as he dropped the box in her hands and had his hands behind him with an expectant look.
So she opened the box, gently uniting the wrapping ribbon on the box and lifting the lid off and she found herself staring at two beautiful black daggers with glowing silver Greek runes that flashed maroon briefly.
"These are-"
"Amazing." Rose cut him off as she pulled out the daggers and held them in her hands, gently setting the box down besides her on the floor.
"These are made out of the horns from a creature I kill recently. They should be extremely durable, I figured that since you are a mage type, giving you something for close quarter combat when someone gets too close would be a good option." Raven explained as he ran a finger over the runes and they glowed.
"I didn't do much besides making them extra sharp and durable, but they should be able to channel your fire pretty good, not as much as your staff, but still pretty good." Raven tooted his own horn with smugness not uncommon for him.
Rose gently stored the daggers in some sheaths he had also placed in the box and stuffed them beneath her sleeves. It would take some getting used to. However, as she glanced up at his face, a small pleased and happy smile on his face, she came to one conclusion.
She stepped forward and wrapped her hands around his neck, with some struggle due to the height difference, and pulled him down, capturing his lips with her own using the element of surprise.
"Christmas, Yule Ball, we're going, I'm wearing a green and silver dress, match appropriately." Rose declared as she walked off with a sway of her hips.
"Ok." Raven said in a disbelieving tone, something more lingering there too.
The moment she made it back to her room, her face exploded red and she started rolled around on her bed with a gleeful smile on her face.
•~~~~~•
Raven blinked as his mind focused on what just happened.
1) He gave Rise the daggers, so mission complete.
2) She liked the daggers, bonus points.
3) She kissed him, wtf.
4) Fuck yes!
5) He now has a date. Shit.
"Ok, time to go home and pay a visit to momma for some dressing assistance." He decided as he vanished in a flurry of shadows to the underworld.
The moment he appeared, he came onto a bizarre scene in the living room, Hades was draped on his throne exausted, mentally, from something. Persephone, momma, was giggling at something with Melinoe. Thanatos sat in the corner slumped as he was looking at a clipboard. Hecate was also there looking slumped about something.
"Did someone in the pantheon majorly screw up again, was it Zeus? Did he sleep with something he shouldn't have and pissed off commenting anciently powerful?" Raven asked jokingly.
"If only that was the case." Hades said with a tired expression. "I could use a distraction. What brought you home early?" Hades asked as he sat up in his throne properly.
"I came to see Momma Persephone. I need her assistance in a matter." Raven declared and the goddess instantly understood as she started dragging Raven off.
"Come see me whenever you are done, I have something to discuss with you afterwards." Hades said with a serious tone before he slumped in his throne again.
"Ok."
•~~~~~•
7 hours of explaining everything and going through a lot of clothing options, Raven had an outfit picked out for his dance.
"You look even more exhausted then I do." Hades drawled amused and Raven slumped on a couch with a groan.
"Laugh it up old man, I'll tell momma you want a full closet worth of new fitting clothes."
"Oh big threats there." Hades laughed before sighing as he sat up and had a serious look on his face. "I have a mission for you from my patreon."
"Death." Raven said in recgonition.
"Yes, she called a meeting, there is an issue, but us death gods and goddesses are working on solving it. However, at the end of the meeting, she left a mission for you." Hades spoke after a moment.
"A mission for me?"
"Yes, are you familiar with the name, Tom Marvalo Riddle?"
"Oh yes, that's the name of the freak who split his soul using Horcruxes, what a shitty form of immortality, it's not hard to trace the pieces of his soul if one knows what rituals and spells to use, kind of a whiny bitch." Raven chuckled.
"Yes, well your mission is as such, come sometime in the near future, you will encounter Tom Marvalo Riddle attempting to reviver himself, inside of him will lay an item special to Lady Death, you are to retrieve and hold onto it until such time she comes to reclaim it. She mentioned it will be in his chest area." Hades said with a frown, he did not like people who made a mockery of death.
He didn't care if people extended their lives, everyone dies at some point and Death claims them, but making a mockery of it and damaging the soul, it is an abomination of a thing to do to live an eternal life.
Any being who did so deserved Lady Deaths personal attention.
"What item?"
"The Resurrection Stone." Hades declared and Raven gasped, something inside of him reacting to the mention of the deathly hollow, an odd pulse inside of him before fading away, all unnoticed by Hades due to Raven's great physical control of his reactions.
"Interesting, I'll definitely keep an eye out." Raven replied before the two spent a couple hours conversing about not such important matters.
•~~~~~•~~~~~•~~~~~•
While writing this story, specifically this chapter, I've realized a few things.
I've been writing this story for a long time, the original version, which I started in like my second year of high school, I remember it ended around this point in the story line, 4th year if I remember correctly, and it was around the same thing of Raven creating a dagger for Rose, so it felt poetic to continue past that point like this here.
As a special I'm going to post the original version of this story on here, though I'll have to edit some parts out lol. High school me was on some stuff when writing it. I've also decided to make use of it in this rewrite, so keep an eye out for it. I'll also apologize for anyone who reads it, the grammer in it is atrocious, more so at some points then others, I was much more sleep deprived in school then I am now, I used to go days without sleeping, now I just want to sleep every two seconds from how tired I am.
Anyways, it's just such a trip to realize how long I've been writing this story, since high school, I remember waiting for class to start and writing this story on my phone, well the original, I don't think I started the rewrite till after I graduated at least. Yep, after checking the posting time, chapter 1 of the rewrite was published on 7-17-2024, it's been a wild 2 years of writing this story, and I'm excited to write even more of it, but goddamn is this Hogwarts arc taking fucking forever!
I love this story, but it's barely a bit past half way through this current arc of Hogwarts being the main focus, I won't lie and say I won't be glad to be past it. Though Raven won't appreciate all the stuff he'll be going thorough though.
Anyways, I'm going to head to bed now, I need my sleep, I've finally got two days off in a row instead of them being on split days of the week, like Tuesday and Friday, and I'm taking advantage to sleep in, soooo good morning everyone, and see you all next chapter!
Bye~
-Voidy, The Insomniac Writer