Young Celestial Wizard [Celestial Grimoire, Harry Potter]

The whirlpool exploded upward in a deafening roar right next to the ferry. Water shot hundreds of meters into the air, a massive geyser that sounded like a thousand waterfalls at once. When it came crashing back down, Harry saw what had been hiding beneath the surface, and the screams from the crowd below choked in their throats.

Another Tripod. But this one was enormous.

"You have to be kidding me," Harry muttered.

Where the three he'd just destroyed had been maybe fifty meters tall, this thing was easily three times that size. Its dome-shaped head was the size of a building, and the tentacles writhing beneath its body were thick as goblin tunnels. The searchlights that blazed from its front were so bright they hurt to look at for muggles even from kilometers away.

Harry raised his vine wand, but paused when two more standard-sized Tripods burst out of the water on either side of the ferry. Water dripped off their dark hulls as they rose like mechanical sea monsters and started firing rays of death straight at him, forcing him to dodge.

Their horns sounded in unison, a bone-deep vibration that made the air itself tremble.

BRRRWAAAAAAUUUUMMM.

The remaining windows in the terminal shattered, and the screams of the crowd were swallowed by the drone.

That wasn't all. From his height in the sky, Harry could see three more Tripods approaching a hill where hundreds of people had gathered. The distant figures looked like ants from up here, but Harry could see them scattering in all directions as the machines closed in.

Six Tripods. All at once.

Harry closed his eyes for less than a second to feel for Chrysa's current position even as he dropped to dodge another ray and relaxed slightly when he sensed she was nowhere close to any of the Tripods.

She was smart enough to know she couldn't help him here.

The massive Tripod's tentacles suddenly lashed out. The sound of groaning, tortured metal shrieked across the water as it gripped the ferry like a child grabbing a toy boat.

"NO! GOD, NO!" a man's voice cried out from the dock.

The machine flipped the entire vessel on its side. A thunderous splash rang out as hundreds of people, cars, and debris were dumped into the Hudson River. The air filled with the desperate screams of those who couldn't swim, the panicked cries for loved ones.

"MY BABY!" a woman shrieked. "SOMEONE HELP MY BABY!"

"Bastards," Harry snarled.

Nearly three seconds before the other Tripods could begin plucking the survivors from the water with their tentacles, three Stone Citrinitas Spears were sent flying with flicks of his wand. They reached all three Tripods in the river simultaneously, piercing straight through their shields and into their dome-shaped heads with a crunch of metal.

The two smaller Tripods froze, their lights dying instantly before they began sinking into the water like dead weights.

But the massive one wasn't damaged enough. A deep, angry hiss escaped from its hull as black, oily smoke began pouring from vents, spreading across the water toward the struggling survivors.

At the same time, more death rays lanced toward Harry in the sky.

Jets of flame intensified beneath his feet as Harry dodged them while raising both hands. A twenty-meter-tall and hundred-meter-wide wall of azure flames burst forth from the ground and swept towards the Hudson River, consuming the unnatural black smoke completely.

His Inner Eye had shown him that the smoke would have killed everyone it touched within seconds. At least a thousand people would have died if he hadn't acted.

The flames crackled and hissed as they burned away the alien poison, but Harry shot closer to the massive Tripod, ignoring its sheer scale and focusing his senses. He hunted for that tiny spark of terror he could feel from the pilot within its hull, and once he had locked on...

"Found you."

He flicked his vine wand again. Another Stone Citrinitas Spear pierced straight through the machine's head to the occupant inside and the massive Tripod shuddered one last time, its last tentacles going limp, and then it was still.

Harry didn't pause to celebrate. He looked toward the hill where three more Tripods were firing death rays at fleeing humans.

He grasped a fresh spear in his right hand. The jet of fire beneath him carried him across the distance in seconds and he hurled the spear at the nearest Tripod while summoning two more with his Space Authority. A wave of his wand sent both spears flying toward the remaining machines.

All three Tripods stopped moving within moments of being pierced.

Harry waved his hand toward the fallen Tripods, and all the spears vanished back into his Treasury. He flew back to the Hudson River at high speed, where hundreds of people were still struggling in the water.

He couldn't waste time. Some of those people had been underwater for nearly two minutes already.

Harry raised his vine wand and began casting Levitation Charms. His Will split into dozens of fragments as he lifted person after person from the cold water, gently placing them on the shore. Babies and children first... their tiny bodies couldn't handle the cold as long as adults could.

The first child he pulled up was a girl who couldn't have been older than three. Her lips were blue and she wasn't breathing. Harry's heart clenched as he placed her on the concrete and immediately shot a concentrated bolt of Life Flames at her. The golden fire engulfed her small body, warming her and healing the damage from the cold water.

She coughed up river water and started crying.

Thank Merlin.

The next was a baby, maybe six months old, still strapped into a car seat that had somehow kept him afloat. The infant was unconscious but breathing weakly. Harry's Life Flames wrapped around the car seat, and the baby's eyes fluttered open.

But the third child...

Harry pulled up a boy who looked about five years old. His skin was pale gray and his eyes stared at nothing. Harry's Life Flames touched him, but nothing happened. The golden fire could heal injuries and warm frozen bodies, but it couldn't bring back the dead.

Harry stared down at the small body for a moment before gently closing the boy's eyes.

He let out a small sigh as he turned back to the water and continued rescuing the other children.

A woman with brown hair came running toward the shore as Harry placed her daughter on the concrete. The little girl was maybe four years old, unconscious but breathing after Harry's Life Flames had warmed her.

"Emma! Emma, baby, please wake up!" The woman dropped to her knees beside her daughter, tears spilling down her face.

The girl's eyes opened slowly. "Mommy?"

"Oh thank God, thank God..." The woman pulled her daughter into her arms, sobbing with relief.

But not every reunion went that way.

Harry watched as a man in his thirties knelt down next to a boy that looked maybe seven years old, with sandy brown hair that was still dripping river water.

"Tommy...?" The man's voice was shaking as he knelt down. "Come on, buddy. Dad's here. Dad's here, okay?"

But Tommy didn't wake up. His small chest wasn't moving.

The man looked up at Harry with desperate eyes. "Please. Please, you saved the others. You can save him too, right? You're an angel. You can bring him back!"

Harry's throat felt tight. "I'm sorry. I can heal injuries, but I can't... I can't bring back the dead."

The man stared at him, like he didn't understand the words. Then he looked back down at his son and something broke inside him.

"No. No, no, no..." He gathered the boy's body in his arms, holding him close. "Tommy, please. Please don't leave Daddy. Please..."

Harry turned away and kept working. What else could he do? Stand there and watch a father's heart break?

He had more people to save.

By the time Harry had pulled everyone from the water, nearly a thousand people were scattered along the riverbank. Most were alive, warmed and healed by his Life Flames. But not all.

Seventeen children hadn't made it. Twenty-three adults.

Harry closed his eyes for a second, then looked around at the thousands of people everywhere. Bodies were everywhere… some moving, some not. People were crying, shouting, looking for family members.

"This is not sustainable," Harry muttered.

He watched a woman frantically searching through the bodies on the riverbank, calling out a name over and over.

How many more Tripods are out there?

How many more people are going to die while I'm flying around?

The problem was obvious. Muggles had absolutely no way to fight back against these Tripods. Zero. Their weapons were useless, and their governments were probably in complete chaos right now. Harry had barely managed to destroy six of them, and that was only because his Citrinitas Spears could pierce their shields. Without those spears, his standard lightning and flames had been completely worthless.

There were other options in his arsenal like False Death Flames, Nigredo Flames, Offensive Thunder Speech, Magic… but these were all esoteric options that muggles didn't possess.

If these machines were dangerous enough to make even him sweat, then regular humans were completely helpless.

But it wasn't just about individual power. This was a global invasion. Ray had mentioned reports from other cities, other countries.

If there were Tripods all over the world...

Harry did some quick math in his head. He'd just killed six Tripods in maybe fifteen minutes. That included travel time, dodging their death rays, and rescuing people from the river. Even if he could maintain that pace, which he doubted, that was only twenty-four Tripods per hour.

Maybe six hundred in a day if he never stopped to rest.

But his Inner Eye was already getting tired. The constant precognition was draining, and without it, those death rays would turn him to ash instantly. He might be able to keep this up for another thirty minutes before exhaustion forced him to stop.

Six hundred Tripods.

That sounded like a lot until Harry considered the scale of what they were dealing with.

Earth had a population of what, less than six billion people? If the aliens were serious about conquest or extermination, they wouldn't send just a few dozen machines. They'd send enough to overwhelm any possible resistance. Thousands. Tens of thousands. Maybe hundreds of thousands or millions of these things, all invading simultaneously across every continent.

Even if he could somehow kill a thousand Tripods every single day without rest, without his precognition failing, without making a single mistake... it still wouldn't be enough.

Not if this invasion was as comprehensive as it seemed.

And that was assuming he could even maintain his current pace, which was already pushing his limits.

Harry opened his eyes and looked down at the crowd again. These people were looking at him like he was their savior. Like he could make the monsters go away and bring back their dead children.

I can't save everyone. I can't even save most of them.

It was simple mathematics. There were too many threats spread across too large an area, and Harry was only one person. He could save the people right in front of him, maybe clear out a city or two, but while he was doing that, millions would be dying elsewhere.

Simultaneous global strikes of overwhelming numbers with weapons that could kill instantly from long range and shields that could withstand almost anything…

Even if Earth had a hundred people with Harry's abilities, it might not be enough. The sheer scale of the invasion was a problem that brute force couldn't solve. He could patch the holes, but the dam was breaking everywhere at once.

He did have one advantage, though. He could build a new dam.

Harry rose higher into the sky and raised his hand. Sparks of electricity crackled between his fingertips before he spoke, amplified by the might of Thunder Speech.

"ATTENTION!"

Harry's voice boomed across the area, but instead of the immediate silence he expected, the crowd below exploded into chaos.

"Did you hear that? The angel spoke!"

"What does he want?"

"Maybe he's going to take us to heaven!"

"My daughter is still missing! Please help me find her!"

"Are there more of those things coming?"

"I can't find my husband! Has anyone seen him?"

Harry frowned. This wasn't working. He tried again, louder this time.

"EVERYONE LISTEN TO ME!"

But that just made things worse. Now people were shouting over each other, trying to get his attention.

"Please, my son needs help!"

"Angel! Angel, over here!"

"Are you going to destroy all the aliens?"

"Take me with you! I don't want to die!"

The noise was getting ridiculous. Harry could barely make out individual voices anymore. People were crying, shouting questions, begging for help, and completely ignoring his attempts to address them as a group.

This is exactly what happened at St. Mungo's, Harry thought with annoyance. Give people hope and they lose their minds.

He needed them to actually listen, not just scream at him. And there was only one way to make that happen.

Harry released his full Presence.

Every voice cut off mid-sentence. Every baby stopped crying. Even the people who had been frantically searching through debris froze in place. Twelve thousand faces turned upward to stare at him with complete, undivided attention.

Much better.

Harry kept his Presence active as he spoke again.

"I cannot be everywhere at once. I cannot protect everyone from the alien threat. These Tripods are spread across your entire planet, and there are too many of them."

He paused, letting that sink in. He could see the fear in their faces, but also the anxious hope.

"However," Harry continued, "I can offer you safety."

Harry raised his hand and activated his Space Authority. A massive circular portal tore open in the air beside him, easily twenty meters across. Through the gateway, people could see rolling green hills under a bright blue sky with white clouds drifting peacefully overhead.

The crowd remained silent, held in place by his Presence.

"This is a gateway to another world," Harry explained. "A world where the aliens cannot reach you. Where their machines do not exist. You will be safe there."

He gestured toward the portal with what he hoped was a reassuring expression.

"The choice is yours. You may stay here and face the alien invasion, or you may step through and live in peace. But choose quickly."

Harry pulled back his Presence slightly, just enough to let them speak again.

"-another world? That's impossible-"

"-don't care if it's real, I'm going-"

"Has anyone seen a little girl in a red coat? Please, she's only-"

"-wings, he has actual wings, oh God-"

"It's a trick! Government trick!"

"What government? They're all dead!"

"-not leaving Earth, this is our home-"

"Our home is gone! Look around!"

Harry had expected this reaction. People didn't like change, even when the alternative was death. They'd rather cling to the familiar, even if it was dangerous.

But some of them were already walking toward the portal.

A woman carrying a young child pushed through the crowd. "I don't care where it goes," she called up to Harry. "Anywhere is better than here."

She walked straight through the portal. The moment she disappeared, several other families followed.

"Wait!" a man shouted. "What if it's a trap? What if he's one of them?"

"One of who?" another person snapped back. "He just killed six of those things! If he wanted us dead, we'd already be dead!"

"But we don't know anything about him! He could be anything!"

"He's got wings and a halo, you moron! Obviously he's an angel!"

"Angels don't exist!"

"Yeah? Well neither did giant alien death robots until today!"

More people were walking through the portal now. Harry counted maybe fifty so far, mostly families with young children. But thousands more were still arguing amongst themselves, paralyzed by indecision.

"This is insane!" one man was shouting. "We can't just abandon Earth! This is our home!"

"Our home is being destroyed!" a woman shot back. "Look around you! Those things are killing everyone!"

Harry was about to say something when he noticed a group of people in military uniforms pushing through the crowd. They weren't panicking like the civilians and their leader, a woman with silver hair and stars on her shoulders, was looking directly at him.

Harry glanced at their uniforms. He recognized the camouflage pattern from action movies he'd watched with Dudley and Calla.

American military, definitely high-ranking based on all the decorations.

The woman raised her hand. "Excuse me! Sir! Could we speak with you for a moment?"

Harry flapped his angel wings slowly and lowered himself closer to the ground, though he stayed floating about three meters up. He also released his Presence lightly across the crowd, not enough to paralyze them, but enough to calm the shouting and prevent anyone from rushing at him.

The arguments died down to worried whispers, and people stepped back to give the military group some space.

"I'm Lieutenant General Maria Barrett," the woman called up to him. "I was coordinating the evacuation when..." She gestured toward the fallen Tripods in the water. "Well, when you showed up. Mind if we ask what exactly we're dealing with here?"

"Go ahead," Harry said.

"First question everyone's thinking," Barrett said bluntly. "Are you human?"

Straight to the point. Harry could respect that. "Not entirely, no."

"Alien?" one of the younger officers asked.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "If I were with them, would I have just killed six of their machines?"

The officer's face went red. "Right. Sorry. It's been a long day."

"Understandable," Harry said. The poor man probably hadn't slept in twenty-four hours and had just watched his world get invaded by aliens. A little paranoia was reasonable.

Barrett shot her subordinate a look. "What he meant to ask is where you're from."

"Another universe," Harry replied. "I sensed the invasion and came to help."

That got some whispers from the crowd, but Barrett just nodded. She was taking this very well for someone who'd probably never heard of multiversal travel before today.

"Another universe," she repeated. "Alright. Can you tell us anything about these Tripods?"

Harry shook his head. "I know less than you do. I only arrived an hour ago. What I can tell you is that their shields absorb most attacks completely, their death rays travel at light-speed, and there are pilots inside controlling them."

"Pilots?" Barrett's eyes sharpened. "You're sure?"

Harry nodded, but another officer quickly spoke up. "Sir, our weapons can't even scratch those shields. How were you able to destroy them?"

"I have weapons that can pierce their defenses," Harry said. "But I'm only one person. There are Tripods all over your planet, aren't there?"

Barrett's expression darkened. "Last report we got before communications went down... New York, Washington, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Tokyo. Probably every major city on Earth."

That pretty much confirmed his worst fears about the scale of this invasion.

"How many people are we talking about?" Harry asked. "Total casualties?"

"We don't know," Barrett admitted. "Could be hundreds of millions already..."

The crowd had gone quiet again, listening to every word. Harry could feel their growing despair, even with his Presence keeping them calm.

This is the problem. Even if I could kill a thousand or ten thousand Tripods a day, it wouldn't matter. While I'm here saving a few thousand people, millions are dying everywhere else.

He looked at the portal he'd created. Maybe two hundred people had gone through so far, but many more were still standing around arguing or looking for family members.

"The portal," Barrett said, following his gaze. "That world you're offering, what's the catch?"

"No catch," Harry said. "It's just a safe place to wait until this is over."

"And if it's never over?"

Harry met her eyes. "Then they can stay there permanently. It's a good world."

Barrett stared at him. "You don't think we can win, do you?"

She was sharp. "I'll do what I can, but I can't be everywhere at once. My priority is saving lives, not winning a war that cannot be won."

"Understood." Barrett turned to her officers. "Start organizing the evacuation. Families with children first, then elderly and injured. Set up a processing line."

"Ma'am," one of them said, "shouldn't we contact command first? Get authorization?"

Barrett shook her head. "Authorization for what? An angel offering to save our civilians? You think there's a protocol manual for this?"

Harry found himself almost smiling. He was starting to like Lieutenant General Barrett.

"Besides," she continued, "command is probably dead. Last I heard, the Pentagon was under attack."

That sobered everyone up quickly.

"Sir," Barrett called up to Harry. "If you're willing, there might be a way you could help coordinate a larger evacuation. NORAD in Colorado… if there's still a functioning government, that's where they'll be."

Working with the military would make evacuations more organized, but it would also mean answering a lot of questions he didn't want to answer.

On the other hand, organized evacuations would save more lives than random portals.

"I could speak with them," Harry said. "But understand, I'm not here to serve any government. I'm here to save people. If your leaders try to interfere with that, I'll ignore them."

"Honestly," Barrett said, "I think they'll be so desperate for help they won't care about chain of command."

Harry was about to respond when his head snapped to the north.

"More incoming," Harry announced. "Five of them. You have about eight minutes."

The crowd that had been listening quietly suddenly broke into chaos again.

"Everyone through the portal!" Barrett shouted. "NOW! Move, move, move!"

Kill any Tripods in his path, try to save any humans he could find, then fly to Colorado, then organize evacuations for millions of people...

This wasn't going to be easy.