19 Chapter 19 Secrets of the Sorcerers

Since Harry didn't react negatively to her admission she decided to continue. "The purpose of the Sanctums is to protect the earth from other dimensional threats. The master of the Dark Dimension is one of the strongest threats. He seeks to drag the whole of the earth into his dimension. Should he succeed, the planet will vanish from orbit around the sun and the sky will lack both time and meaning. The Dark Energy will saturate the body of every living being transforming their form while granting them endless agony. Such beings are in so much pain they cannot comprehend meaning so are called mindless ones. They do not age and will not die naturally but I think we can both agree that is beside the point."

Harry frowned and said, "So are you going to become a mindless one?" That would kinda become an issue he figured.

She shook her head at the question, "No Harry, at least not with the elemental formation I have preventing the Dark energy from tainting and saturating my flesh. In this way I can escape age and protect the world for as long as I can. I can also use the energy to dominate ambient dimensional energy."

She demonstrated this by having the dark energy surge within her causing a black diamond to appear on her forehead. She then waved her hand around and caused the three dimensional space of the room they were in to expand, contract, and fold in on itself like a kaleidoscope before reverting to normal. Harry felt the Dark energy within her force the Dimensional energy around them to submit to her control.

Harry said, "So you are using the resources of the enemy to make yourself stronger even though doing so is much like balancing on a knife? I'm guessing you don't want anyone else to do the same."

She nodded, "Very few would be capable of using Dark Energy while restraining it. Among those of Kamar-Taj, I believe Mordo would be the only one capable of doing so. He would never do it of course and I cannot ask him to. Neither would he would ever forgive me for doing it myself. He is too rigid." She wasn't guessing either. She had that conversation with Mordo several times but she never saw a positive outcome when viewing it prior to the conversation so it never actually happened from Mordo's perspective.

Harry nodded. He said, "Last year I had to compete in a dangerous competition and my school wasn't allowed to help. When I asked the headmaster if I could borrow some books from his private collection, he said he could not allow me to as that would be considered assistance. He then told me he didn't know if any books from his collection were missing and if I found any around the castle to return them when convenient. He then left me alone in the room with his collection saying I could let myself out when I wished."

The Ancient One smiled and easily recognized the act as something Albus Dumbledore would do from the rumors she heard of the man.

Harry continued, "Rules exist for a reason but reason itself does not always exist. When reason fails you, sometimes rules get in the way."

The Ancient One added, "Flexibility is important. Truth is that I hate having to use energy from the dark dimension. Because as you have said, I have not synchronized with it, it feels foreign and filthy. I have lived with that sensation for hundreds of years now and I still cannot stand it."

Harry felt a shiver of revulsion imagining such a thing. He said, "If there was another way to retain your life, would you use it?"

The Ancient One shook her head. "It is too late. Over the years I have found a few alternatives. Each has their own price of course but I've found that it was no use. I once found the actual Fountain of Youth. I was so pleased when I found it. I was ready to completely expel the Dark Energy from my body and had even found a way to offset the price of continuous usage of the fountain. It was then that reality came crashing down around me. When the Dark energy left my body, it was completely wracked with pain. My body had existed for so long without time it could no longer survive it. No matter what I attempt, my body would die shortly after ridding myself of the energy."

Harry considered the implications and realized the Elixir of Life would be useless in this situation as well. In a very real sense, the Ancient One's body was no longer alive. An Elixir that brings life may actually make her condition worse.

The Ancient One noticed Harry's frown and inwardly smiled. Harry's knowledge likely included a few ways to beat death which was why he asked. She was happy that even knowing what she had done, he was concerned for her and even wanted to help.

"Don't concern yourself with me Harry, I have long since accepted this."

Harry asked, "Is there anything I can do?"

The Ancient One paused instead of immediately replying in the negative. There was in fact something Harry could give her, a piece of information that she always wanted to know but always terrified her.

"Perhaps. If you can, I'd like you to answer a question. What happens when you die?"

Harry considered the question. He always thought somewhere deep down he wasn't supposed to tell people things like that. However there was no warning, no pop up, no bad feeling when he thought about telling her the truth. In other words, the decision was entirely on him.

"My death was in no way standard, but I don't mind telling you what I figured out. When you die, your soul and your sense of self, your identity as it were, must part. But the sense of self can't part unless it is well rounded. After death you'll experience what you need to become well rounded depending on the type of life you lived. A child who was never loved will experience a lifetime's worth of love. A person who got away with many wrongs will experience appropriate punishments to balance that person out. Once you have become well rounded, your soul will leave your sense of self and reincarnate. The sense of self will then become one with Death. I don't know what happens after that since I got the Heaven package but had to return to life."

Harry had long since figured out that the echoes of his mother and father he stayed so long with were both Death itself. Many pieces of information they had given in retrospect wasn't information his parents would give. Like why would his father, the heir of an ancient wizard family, tell Harry that the wizarding world was too small for him? That meant it was Death all along. Harry didn't know why, but he knew that Death had given him an immeasurable gift he wouldn't have traded for anything in the world. Because of this, Harry would never allow others to disrespect Death.

When Harry looked back to the Ancient One after finishing his monologue, he saw that she was crying. A moment later she grabbed a napkin to wipe her tears and said, "Thank you Harry."

When she heard what happened after death, she actually didn't think of herself. She thought of all the hundreds of friends, allies, and partners who died so long ago. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting for an answer, but she found that after hearing it, she felt a peace she never knew.

There was however one thing that stuck out to her. She asked, "Harry, how long were you on the other side?"

This wasn't the first time Harry had thought of this question. At first, he figured it was a few years, perhaps some decades. But after spending time alive in a place time could be measured, he slowly realized how wrong he had been. He blamed television and video games. He probably watched every episode of every show that existed on cable at the time at least twice and replayed every video game until he got bored with them perhaps a dozen times.

"Several hundred years I think," he answered.

The Ancient One froze for a moment before a smile crept across her lips. Then she started laughing. It was a full, deep, light hearted laugh and went on for a full minute before she eventually calmed down.

Harry had dealt with Sirius enough to have patience for this kind of thing so he calmly waited until she was done.

Once calmed down she said, "I'm sorry Harry. It's just that many of your perceptions closely resemble my own. I thought it should be impossible for someone of my years and a twelve year old to have so much in common. But now it makes sense. That would make you the closest person to my own age of Kamar-Taj."

Harry figured if he had gone this far, he should go for broke. "Since you told me your big dangerous secret, I think I should tell you mine."

"Being a Wizard training as a Sorcerer isn't dangerous enough for you?" She asked with mirth.

Harry smirked, "Nope that was the distraction for the really good stuff. What do you know about video games?"

Harry and the Ancient One spoke until morning and then late into the afternoon. Only after it had finished did the Ancient one realize it may have been the longest conversation of her lifetime. She rarely had conversations with someone she didn't already know the content of and she had to admit finding out things you completely weren't expecting one after another was something she rarely if ever experienced.

Harry told her all he could think of and she agreed to help him get stronger as discreetly as possible. Harry told her of his video game powers and Dumbledore's theory about the Deathly Hallows being absorbed into him. After testing out a few aspects of his powers she made her own training schedule for him. Before this point, Harry did not understand the possibilities and benefits of the Heart Palace technique he stole from Mordo. Once the Ancient One explained it to him he was eager to test it.

Not including Dark Energy from the Dark Dimension ruled by Dormammu or Time Energy, there were thirteen standard types of energy used by Sorcerers for the most common and practical spells. Harry intended on absorbing enough of each to add to his Heart Palace and synchronize all the energies together. Harry was quite happy to know that this technique was originally created by the Sorcerer Supreme Merlin prior to his acceptance of that position to fuse Exotic energy with other forms of Energy.

Harry's first goal was Nature energy. It was used to create storms and powerful gusts of winds in a spell called Winds of Watoomb.

The Ancient One would also take Harry to the Mirror Dimension once a week to spar. Watching the woman fold citiescapes like origami paper made Harry wonder if he could do something similar with transfiguration.

During one sparring session, she said, "Harry, why do you use a short sword? I understand why you used it before, but you are growing taller and it is no longer a good fit for you. Sorcerers often use small weapons or long staffs in magic combat. A short sword doesn't have enough benefits to use in magic combat."

The next week Harry faced her with a maniacal grin and materialized a giant sword longer than he was tall and wide enough to hide behind.

The Ancient One said, "That's.. Not quite what I had in mind."

Harry's response was a wider grin.

She shook her head and muttered under her breath, "Why do I even bother."

Oddly enough the massive sword worked pretty well. It got bad if the construct broke but Harry's constructs were pretty solid. Weapons materialized of Dimensional energy didn't have weight but they did have momentum. That meant a thick sword took more effort to swing but had more force behind the strike.

Harry decided to spend the next few level ups on STR. He was ending up a jack of all trades on the stats but since the actual power behind combat came from the Path Ranks, he didn't mind as long as he put the effort into grinding each out. Besides, higher STR meant higher physical resistance to damage and Harry was more likely to get stabbed than he was to get hit with a bolt of magic lightning.

With more strength and his Eldritch Heavy Sword as the Ancient One called it, Harry had a much easier time against monsters during battle mediation. Harry also went to an internet cafe and found a video of some practitioners using a heavy sword so he could figure out some proper techniques to use with it.

After Harry's third month he finally joined the other students in open practice of dimensional energy. Mordo accepted that Harry had gotten the hang of it after three months and would occasionally give advice or a small demonstration.

One day Mordo said it was time to spar with Harry and told him to summon a weapon. Harry smiled and summoned his heavy sword. Mordo looked both fascinated and insulted at the massive weapon. He got out his Staff of the Living Tribunal and his Vaulting Boots of Valtorr.

Master Mordo was more than a little surprised when Harry's construct did not shatter at the first strike of the staff that could smash concrete without difficulty. Harry kept the blade moving around him while he moved around the blade. Doing so allowed him to strike out, then shield himself with the sword and strike out again. The Ancient One told him it reminded her of waves crashing on the beach. Harry decided he liked it and called the fighting style Tidal Sword Style.

Mordo used his boots to jump against the air but Harry could sense the ripple of magic that preceded each step so every use of the boots telegraphed Mordo's next move allowing Harry to counter it before it was made.

Although it looked like Harry was holding his own, that was just because of how much Mordo was holding back. He had no intention of crushing Harry, he was just looking for weaknesses in the use of his heavy sword to determine if it was worth using or not. So far he was quite surprised.

Not that Harry was going all out either. Harry had already once told Mordo he was strong for his age so Harry was using about one and a half a standard adult's worth of strength and speed. Using Dimensional energy to move your body for you increased strength and speed by a large factor but Mordo wasn't doing it so Harry would fight at just above human level for now.

Harry would swing his giant sword to attack or move under it or behind it to defend. Harry watched a number of videos with tower shield users to incorporate how they worked around their shield to fight and the Ancient One had no problem painfully pointing out the weaknesses of Harry's styles.

Mordo had seen enough of Harry's unusual defenses so let up and showed some openings so he could see Harry's attacks. Harry swung from the left to bisect Mordo who jumped to dodge. The swing itself though instantly stopped below Mordo and twisted up with an edge that promised Mordo a painful landing. Mordo used his boots to take an air step but Harry jumped to follow and swung up with the added force of the jump. Mordo once again used his boots to dodge and watch the enormous blade pass him by.

Harry was both interested and annoyed by those boots. From what Harry sensed, they used electrostatic discharge to gather water vapor and solidify it for a moment to be used as a step. Valtorr was a god-like being who had power over clouds which only sounded weak but really wasn't. Water vapor could be gathered into mist using Valtorr's power which could conceal, blind, and even imprison others. Water could be gathered into a miniature storm cloud which lightning could be called forth from.

When Harry landed after Mordo's final dodge, the master put his staff away and said, "Where did you learn to fight like that?"

"Video games Master Mordo. I play a lot of video games." Harry easily answered.

The man smiled and shook his head. "I have seen spears, axes, knives, chakrams, swords, whips, kamas, and fans. That however was a first."

Harry smiled and said, "So how'd I do?"

Mordo nodded, "Promising."

It seemed one word of encouragement was all the master of the mystic Arts allowed himself for the twelve year old and Harry decided to be happy he got even that.

Though he continued training each day he still stayed in contact with the magical world. Hermione's owl Hedwig would drop off letters for him as the Sanctum in London which Harry was fine with as he would have felt bad for the bird if she had to fly all the way to Asia every few weeks.

Remus Lupin had returned to England after hearing from the papers about the tournament and Dumbledore hired him on the spot as the new Defense Against the Dark arts teacher. Hermione said he was great since not only was he practical, but he was actually willing to give her some advanced lessons when he saw how far ahead she was along with Neville. She also said that once a month Sirius would show up at Hogwarts and teach Lupin's classes for him, though she did not explain why. Sirius had written that Mooney wanted to meet his honorary nephew when he had the time.

Sirius himself had been going out on a few dates with Amelia and they were getting closer and catching up on lost time. Seems he had already had enough of the bachelor life.

Harry also kept himself up on the latest news in both business and technology. He could pretty much disassemble and assemble any tech on the market blindfolded and could write the operating system of any computer without difficulty. He was also getting familiar with all the names of the business world, their specialties, interests, and markets.

The more he read about business the less he wanted to do with it. It was a cruel world where lives were made and destroyed by the thousands and tens of thousands on the whims and greed of those who lacked the slightest bit of compassion. Harry could put the cause of more suffering to some of these groups than he could lay at the feet of Voldemort and all his death eaters. But at the end of the day it was a resource and if one day he failed to do something because he hadn't cultivated the resource when he could have, he likely wouldn't forgive himself.

For his side projects Harry had already become quite the craftsman. He didn't use a forge or hammers but magic and imagination. There was a spell that could turn iron into clay and back. Harry could then mold, shape, and press the clay before stretching it to create the grain lines then carve out the details and return it back to iron before heating and tempering it. Harry could place the finished produce in his inventory to check the details and see what worked and what didn't.

Harry used the Goblin techniques as a base but used his own talents and skills to build up from there. Legally, Goblins were not allowed wands and they weren't fantastic at wandless magic. Harry had their techniques and his own magic and the insights from the books of Kamar-Taj.

It didn't take long for Harry to finish the library of Kamar-Taj. The apprentice section anyways. The library was split into three sections, the apprentice section, the master's section, and the Sorcerer Sumpreme's private collection. In order to hide this, he still borrowed one book every four days from the apprentice section which made the librarian stop glaring at him as he thought Harry was finally reading properly instead of just skimming. Oh the irony.

The Ancient One said that once Harry had mastered the content of the apprentice section, she would grant him access into the Master's section. This meant however that he needed to fully comprehend the whole of the apprentice section, not just have it memorized which even for him would take a while.

Harry was tempted to do it her way since he probably could within a year, but where would the fun in that be? All Harry had to do was find a specific time when the library was empty so he could sneak in. For others this would be tricky or would require breaking specific rules like the No Dimensional Portals in the Library rule. Harry didn't need to break those rules though, he had a better way. In Harry's room was a large painting of Dogs Playing Poker. When Harry tapped it three times and said a password, it would change to a map of Kamar-Taj and show the location of everyone in the temple. Using it he could easily find a time when no one was in the library and sneak in. Harry had long since figured out the secrets to the Marauder's Map and mailed it to Neville since he didn't need it afterwards.

The volumes in the Master's section really was where the good stuff was. The true names of specific deities who could be invoked during spellcraft to empower some of the more esoteric spells. Histories of ancient figures who did extraordinary deeds. Descriptions of ancient artifacts, relics, and treasures. Details about the various realms and the beings who ruled them. There really were a lot of nice things in there.

Six months after starting Harry got a Sling Ring and learned to use it. The next day he returned it.

From what Harry understood now, a Sling Ring used dimensional energy to harden space, making it brittle. When using the right technique, it was possible to overlap the brittle space with another space then drill a hole from the brittle space behind it to the space that overlapped it.

A Sling Ring was very important, not just for travel, but for the use of the Mirror dimension. It required a lot of power to shatter space and allow one to travel into or even bring others into the mirror dimension, but that was the only requirement. Getting out however could not be done without a proper portal made by the Sling Ring. Even the Ancient One could not return from the Mirror Dimension without a Sling Ring.

Harry didn't need it. The Sling Ring Perk allowed him to harden and overlap space without the ring and creating a portal wasn't difficult after he had the trick down. Harry created a fake Sling Ring so others wouldn't get suspicious though.

According to the Ancient One, it was possible to make a portal to other planets, other realms, and other dimensions.

The Ancient One herself showed Harry how to properly access the Astral Plane and even showed him the various dimensions so he could get a feeling for the energy of each. Harry could actually enter battle Meditation within a dimension in the astral plane so he was no longer limited to only terrestrial energies.

There was a very specific reason the Ancient One decided to teach Harry everything she could think of. It was not free, nor was it from the good of her own heart. It wasn't to make him the Next Sorcerer Supreme either. No, she had something else in mind. She knew that she was going to die before she taught everything to the one who would succeed her and she made Harry swear to pick up where she left off. She also wanted Harry to be a back up plan in case Kamar-Taj ever fell and there was no one left.

In one tutoring session Harry asked her, "How come all the warnings for spells come after the spell in most books?"

She gave an uncharacteristic shrug and answered, "These books were not written in a single sitting. Many would create a spell and test it. If they survived the test they would write the spell down. The consequences of the spell would be learned later in the long run and written some time after the spell or ritual was first created."

"Can't someone just re-write the books with the warnings first?"

"No we cannot I'm afraid. Many books were acquired from donations and there is a strict rule against copying the book to ensure the content only rests within the originals. Another problem is that if someone did copy the books and a mistake was made, the consequences could be disastrous if the spell or ritual was performed from the incorrect copy. Such circumstances have in fact occurred more than once which is why no one copies or edits or re-writes the books."

The original volume was very important to magic users but less so to Harry. A normal Sorcerer would not be able to memorize the angles and lines specific types of mandalas required for magic circles but Harry translated those lines into Arithmancy and numbers allowing him to properly and accurately memorize even the esoteric spell circles better than if he just used eidetic memory to imprint them in his mind. His knowledge of university level math like linear and non-linear algebra and calculus and differential equations helped turn those lines into formulas.

An average day at the temple began with waking early and having breakfast before morning practice. Harry would then spend until evening on various projects and finish in time for evening practice where Harry would do forms with his heavy sword. Harry had no intention of actually using it against a strong enemy, it was just useful for form practice and building the right muscle groups. Harry did intend on using a large sword but not the mammoth he swung for practice.

To be honest, he just liked swinging it to see the expressions on people's faces. Kaecilius and Mordo always made the best faces when they saw him. He had yet to get an expression out of Wong though.

Harry was growing fond of long swords but not something taller than he was. He had in mind something halfway between a zanbato and a dodao. A long single curved clever edge type sword a bit longer than a longsword with a wide blade and longer than normal handle for both single handed and dual grip strikes. It was long enough to attack as he pleased, sharp enough to bisect a man or beast in one strike, yet light enough to use quickly with his strength.

When the Ancient One saw Harry use it for the first time he could tell she was relieved Harry seemed intent to use the heavy sword only for training and pranking. Harry could easily use the Tidal Sword Style he was coming up with on the lighter blade as well though he had to add more forward and back steps to take advantage of the speed he could use to strike.

After training Harry would meet the Ancient One in the Astral Plane where she would teach him various things and familiarize him with various planes. She could not show them all of course. There were more planes of existence than there were people alive on earth. But she did at least show him the important ones. During the exploration they would find some energy within Harry's range and he would initiate battle mediation and defeat the monster that generated. In this way Harry was collecting many different forms of energy and within a few years he had confidence to store enough to form a connection to it and synchronize with it, thus adding that energy to his spell weaving capabilities.

The lessons themselves weren't entirely one way either. Harry knew much about the relatively small hidden world of witches and wizards and would tell her about the various potions, spells, and abilities they had. She couldn't stop herself from smiling the first time Harry turned into a Snowy Owl.

Harry even promised to add a wizard section to the library of Kamar-Taj at some point. They couldn't use exotic energy, but they could learn about it as there were other beings, both mortal and otherwise who could use it. The list and properties of various potions was also useful and Harry intended on leaving a means to mail order potions for the temple and some wizard gold to pay for them. He would even leave some wizard robes and directions to Diagon Alley and how to access it in case they needed to buy things directly from wizards and maybe set the Sanctum up with its own account at Gringotts.

Every weekend Harry would meet the Ancient One in the Mirror Dimension and they would spar. Although Dimensional energy could be used to increase the physique, how much it could increase it by was actually determined by the strength of mind and the physique itself. A stronger mind could increase strength to the limit without harming the body. Without enough mental discipline, forcing the body too far with dimensional energy would cause damage and possibly make the body explode. However, the stronger the body, the more energy could be added without detonation.

In this way, it wasn't a bad thing that Harry was increasing all his stats as his magic stats increased how much he could strengthen his body and his physical stats increased how much his body could take increasing before it broke.

One time Harry tried to strengthen his body with Dimensional Energy beyond his limit and he ended up tearing himself to pieces and exploding in front of the Ancient One. She was most concerned until she saw his remains turned to dust and re-assemble back into himself. Though she could tell from his gritted teeth how unpleasant the experience was. She was even able to hold herself back from handing out the obligatory 'I told you so' as she was the one to warn him of the dangers of overexertion. That time anyways. She would not let him off without an 'I told you so' if there was a next time.

In this way a year passed before anything interesting happened. Harry was more surprised than anyone that it took a full year for something big to happen. Still, Harry didn't expect his first fight as a disciple of Kamar-Taj to be against someone with a kink for magic jewelry.