Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
December 23, 1976 - Serena Pov
In the end, we spent all night and all morning searching for creatures to drain their souls from. We knew most of the places where the creatures Bellatrix wanted as her familiars lived. Using my portals to get close and have Bellatrix drain them dry was relatively easy and quick.
We were able to secure a diverse range of fantastic animals with unique skill sets. We were now close to Hogwarts, in the forbidden forest, and it was approaching lunchtime.
"No, no matter how much you keep insisting, the answer is no." I growled in Bellatrix's direction, and she rolled her eyes.
"It will only be one, I promise," Bellatrix added, and I glared at her.
"I'm not letting you go suck the blood of a unicorn, Bella. I have no idea how its blood would react to your vampirism, let alone the curse for even killing a unicorn, so no." I firmly refused. Bellatrix rolled her eyes.
"You're really taking all the fun out of this. Bella, don't slaughter the giants. Bella, no more dragons to spare. Bella, don't impale the werewolves. Bella, leave the abraxans alone. Bella, stop chasing the thestrals." Bella said mockingly as she mimicked my voice, my eye twitching violently.
"That colony of giants is the last that exists in this world. I was not going to let you extinguish an entire race. Besides, I let you kill those half dozen giants that were affiliated with Voldemort!"
"The damn dragon reserves improved their defenses after our last raids; now they'll be going crazy over the missing adult dragons. I don't even want to think about the fallout if Gringotts were to find out we stole their Ukrainian ironbelly. You already have four; you don't need any more!
"And I didn't say no to werewolves, just not at the moment. I want to see if you make them your familiars during the full moon, and see if they can keep their transformations permanently."
"The Abraxans are from Beauxbatons!! And I don't know what you want them for, same as the Thestrals!" I exclaimed in her direction. Bellatrix shrugged while crossing her shoulders.
"I wanted a flying horse, the abraxans weren't enough," she said simply. I could feel my face twitch.
"Yeah, well, you did get a couple of thestrals, I didn't even know they bled! But you didn't have to go after the whole pack!" Bellatrix snorted and looked away.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Bellatrix said innocently. I growled in her direction, "Besides, stop worrying so much, we left the Dark Mark in all the places that could have discovered us, they'll blame Riddle," Bellatrix added. I sighed tiredly.
"Well, still, it's already noon, go suck the blood of some acromantulas and let's get back to Black Manor." I groaned frustratedly, Bellatrix wrinkled her nose in disgust
"I will not drink spider blood," Bellatrix replied, "you made me drink that troll's blood, and I still hate you for it; it was the worst blood I have ever had the displeasure of tasting." Bellatrix visibly shuddered, and I felt my cheeks flush.
"Well, it was just lying there; it was a waste." I tried to appeal to her, Bellatrix growled.
"No spiders, or anything that looks disgusting." I sighed, but nodded at Bellatrix's words.
"Well then, let's go to Black Manor. I'm tired of flying around the world." I sighed tiredly. Bellatrix seemed to want to say something, but I glared at her. "And no, you can't go devour the centaurs, let's go already!" I replied forcefully. Bella pouted.
"Fine, but not to Black Manor, open a portal to our mansion. I want to test my familiars and put up a time bubble, we'll be there for a while." Bellatrix said excitedly, I moaned in pain. Great, I would be her damn scapegoat again, I sighed and surrendered.
"Fine, whatever you want." I opened a portal to my pocket dimension, specifically to the training room. Bella immediately crossed it, and I followed behind her, immediately enveloping us in a time bubble.
It had been just a few days since our first training session, and we had been doing it daily since. We had both significantly improved from where we started. Bellatrix now had souls to burn, so she allowed herself to be much more reckless than she had been before. She had already been doing so because she was now almost suicidal in her attacks, which worked awfully well.
I had also started taking lessons with Koro-sensei, but there hadn't been any significant change in just a few days, so it was a work in progress.
I, on the other hand, had started consuming metals to eat and constantly decanting my metal mind. Now I was continually enhanced in some way: stronger, more energy, better senses, healing always on, and I could detect magical pulses. It was still disconcerting to hear drums in my head, but I was starting to differentiate the different noises that caused the variations.
But most importantly, I had managed to constantly maintain my La Verità state in a diminished form for over 24 hours in a time bubble without losing control of it, and now I used it in public. I could now appease lust with good feelings; it sounded cheesy, but it was actually effective to use love to subsume lust. Instead of counteracting lust, lust was used to amplify love, which left it buried.
I shudder at the mechanics of how it worked, because it was cheesy; however, I couldn't deny that it was highly effective.
The only drawback was the secondary effects of the transformation itself, aside from my La Verità clothes, which Aria had consumed entirely. Nevertheless, there was still a noticeable change in my figure: I was taller, curvier, and my hair had grown to my waist.
I was thankful that my robes hid my body, as no one had actually seen it (at least not since last year, when the marauders attacked and the incident with Bellatrix occurred in the Great Hall), nor would anyone see it in the near future, if I was lucky. still, everything can be answered by puberty, so I wasn't worried.
I was actually happy; I now had a respectable, nice-to-look-at chest and waist, and not the almost complete flatness I had before, so it was an improvement. Although I could save myself from cutting my hair every time I transformed. The only thing I couldn't change was my star eyes and the black stars below on my cheeks. Many stars gathered together to form spider webs under my eyes, even as I tried to suppress my power as much as I could.
But it wasn't that important, oddly enough, no one cared, even the Blacks hadn't commented at all on all my additions to my face. I was certainly not the first, nor the last eccentric witch in the world, so as far as one's appearance was concerned, they were quite tolerant. Now, if they questioned things like the quality of my clothes, they didn't even notice if the clothes were Muggle style. Still, if the clothes were secondhand or of poor quality, it was foolish.
"Very well, as always?" I asked quietly. Bella smiled widely in an eerie way, then exploded into darkness, and her newly acquired familiars began to form.
Really, Bellatrix didn't need the Control Art Restriction System and Cromwell Invocation. She didn't have anywhere near the amount of souls Alucard had, and even if she did, I wouldn't put a limiter on her. It was stupid to even think about it, but...
My stomach started to drop as I watched all the dangerous beasts emerge from Bellatrix, Dragons, Giants, Runespoor, and a dozen other creatures between XXX and XXXXX. she even had half a dozen Death Eaters from the Hogsmeade raid with their wands out; this… may have been a bad idea.
The roars of the dragons made my entire skeleton tremble. I began to move as fast as I could.
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"That was hell." I moaned tiredly as I caught my breath. I was actually very grateful for the Brass; without it to absorb the heat from the dragon flames, I would have been burned many more times than I would have liked.
Although I can't say the same for being mutilated in other ways by all the half-zombie creatures.
I found out the hard way that they were actually immortal, just like Bellatrix. We both realized that their familiars could also regenerate easily. The only way to kill them was to hit them in the heart or destroy their heads, but Bella could use her soul exchange of immortality to sacrifice other less 'important' souls to keep her familiars immortal.
It was so unfair.
Still, they were definitely clumsier than their real versions; oh, they were still a huge danger. The dragons with their dragonfire were dangerous enough as it was, but the Death Eaters really weren't on the same level as I expected.
And that was because Bellatrix had to forcibly dominate unwilling souls to become her unwilling familiars, but that took away most of their reasoning, rendering them half-useless at any kind of wit or strategy.
However, it wasn't a problem when you had enough familiars to fill the training room and were constantly attacking the enemy without letting them rest for any reason; even such weak attacks became increasingly annoying in large numbers.
"You need to improve." Bellatrix smirked at me, and I raised my hand, extending my middle finger in her direction as I caught my breath.
"Just die, it's complete nonsense, your familiars are a pain," I growled. Bellatrix snorted amusedly.
"That's the whole idea, we need to go find more familiars, … or go to worlds with more monsters that I can make into my familiars." Bellatrix said excitedly, practically salivating at the thought of acquiring more familiars to form an army, literally. "But seriously, you need another template or something if you don't want to be left behind. We have the necessary credits." Bellatrix added, and I made a face.
"Actually, I was thinking of some ideas," I said honestly. Bellatrix looked at me curiously. "But mostly it was to counteract immortalities, like ours."
"Why would you want to do that?" Bellatrix asked as if I were stupid. I rolled my eyes.
"You fought me, tell me, do you really want to face someone like me without any preparation?" I asked rhetorically, Bellatrix paused for a few seconds before grimacing at the image, and I nodded, "Yes, it's horrible just thinking about it, really... It's not something that's going to happen commonly; immortality through regeneration is not as common as longevity, but I want to be prepared." I added.
"But can't you deny it with aluminum? Hemalurgical aluminum removed power, right? Or steal it with an atium hemalurgical spike. " Bellatrix asked with a frown, humming in consideration.
"Mmm, it's hard for aluminum, actually, to do anything; it's only useful in the Cosmere because of the way aluminum itself interacts with the magic of the universe. But in other worlds, other magic systems or supernatural things, it couldn't possibly be the same." I thought out loud, and Bellatrix nodded absentmindedly. "Now, I wouldn't know where to stab someone immortal with atium to steal their immortality. The heart is a safe bet, but it's unlikely I could do it in combat." I wrinkled my nose.
"And my Yami Yami no Mi? It can nullify powers." Bellatrix asked as her hand turned
"Mmmmm, it would work, maybe with most immortals, your fruit negates my powers, so I couldn't really heal while you were touching me, but it's still very restrictive, it relies a lot on direct contact." I wrinkled my nose. "Though… maybe it would work just as well, it's unlikely that someone truly immortal would actually dodge something they know can't harm them. If you catch them off guard, it could work perfectly."
"Then we'll put it down as a maybe." Bellatrix wrinkled her nose. "So? You said you had some ideas. What are they? " Bellatrix asked. I grimaced.
"The first thing that came to mind was Emiya 's template, specifically I thought of Unlimited Blade Works" I sighed, Bellatrix's eyebrows raised, after buying Kazikli Bey from her, we had seen all the Fate series to get a lot more context, so I was familiar with many of the weapons and concepts of the nasuverse "I first thought of Medusa or Medusa Lily, both have Harpe and are perfect immortal killers, but I remembered that UBW has Harpe. I traced, and not just Harpe, there are many other weapons of which it has a record, Gae Bolg also places curses on wounds so that they cannot be healed normally, and if we could somehow get them, Gae " Buidhe of Diarmuid " would be much better."
"And there's also Rule-Breaker if I'm not mistaken, right? Powerful curses can cause immortality; it might work, too. And if it doesn't work with that particular one, it would work in many other situations," Bellatrix shrugged, and I nodded. "Then why haven't you bought the template? " Bellatrix asked, confused. I puffed out my cheeks and looked away.
"I'm a witch." I said childishly as I looked away. Bellatrix stopped and looked at me in disbelief.
"You're joking with me," Bellatrix said incredulously. I felt my cheeks heat up and crossed my arms.
"I'm a witch." I said it again, this time more firmly, and I could feel Bellatrix's gaze boring into my head; I heard her grit her teeth.
"You're telling me … that you won't buy the template, because you're a witch, but when I said the same thing to Kazikli Bey, you just ignored it… But now you're giving the same excuse as me?" I flinched at the anger in her voice and squirmed in place, but I didn't turn to look at her. She clicked her tongue. "If you don't do it, I will." I quickly turned to see her with my The Company phone, and I paled.
"What… are you doing?" I asked carefully, and she raised an eyebrow in my direction.
"buying Emiya's template for you." My eyes widened, and I stormed off in Bellatrix's direction. She easily dodged me.
" Bella, don't you dare! " I exclaimed as I jumped in her direction again, trying to stop Bellatrix from finishing the purchase. I reached out to grab her, but she stretched out her arm with the phone and used the other to keep me away.
"Stay still! It's just a template! Also, if you're so worried about not being a witch anymore, don't worry, what Emiya does is still magic!! " she exclaimed. I stopped momentarily. Technically, what Bellatrix had said wasn't wrong; both Emiya's projections and her Reality Marble, Unlimited Blade Works, are high-level Magecraft, but they are still weapons.
"Okay! I'll think about it! " I said quickly, Bellatrix stopped and stared at me. I made a face. "Seriously, I'll think about it. I want to check out some stuff. Buying Emiya 's template is reduced, I don't know if it will come with any Noble Phantasms on it, it would be a complete waste if I didn't." I said quickly, and Bellatrix frowned, handing me the phone.
"You better not be lying to me," Bellatrix threatened, and I grimaced.
"Of course not." I sighed tiredly. "I really want to find out what parts of the template remain first. I don't want to go to the Nasuverse world for Noble Phantasm, not in the short term, and not in the long term either." I said with a grimace. The last thing I want is to meet someone like Zelretch when I couldn't defend myself. "Although..." I began timidly. "Don't you want the template yourself? It would be the best- "
"No." Bellatrix glared at me as she cut me off. I sighed; at least I tried. "I already have my Noble Phantasm." She crossed her arms. "Besides, you're better at magic than I am; between Baiser and Ancient Magic, you have more raw magic than any of us, your projections would be stronger." I grimaced. She was right, but I didn't like it. I sighed once more.
"Okay, okay, I'll think about it, but we don't need it right away yet, so I'll take my time." Bellatrix narrowed her eyes, but nodded at my words.
"Yes, I see you're avoiding it. I'll buy it while you're sleeping, whether you like it or not," Bellatrix said firmly. I sighed. I really couldn't help it now, great.