HMJ - Chapter 52 (Patreon)

Harry Potter POV

[ You have killed Sloth (Homonculus). 450,000 Exp received. BZZZT ]

[ Level up! ]

[ Leve BZZZT Error! Warning! Critical Error! ]

[ Fatal Error! Warning! Complete System Shutdown! ]

“Ugggh, not good. That’s new.” Harry muttered as he watched his gamer system fail while at the same time his body was getting disintegrated as he got grabbed by many small shadowy hands.

Sloth, who had been in the outer area of the Transmutation Circle, had been completely disintegrated first.

The moment he saw that his system had stopped working, Harry wasn’t sure whether his great idea was actually that great.

For the first time in a long time, he could truly feel his emotions and body again.

Nervousness. Pain. Fear.

No longer was his gamer’s mind working.

He had second thoughts now, but it was too late.

Harry’s idea had been pretty simple.

He didn’t plan to bring a human back or anything; all he wanted was knowledge.

A homonculus with thousands of souls and knowledge from a different world in exchange for knowledge about alchemy and the science behind the Gate of Truth should be a great deal.

An equivalent exchange.

Quick in, and as quickly back again.

At least, that was the idea.

But would it even work if his system wasn’t really working?

New information and knowledge gave many of his skills experience and leveled them up.

With a ton of scientific knowledge, even his magical skill should get a major boost. In theory, at least.

Now it was too late to back out.

In the worst-case scenario, he made sure that he would not break any of his contracts.

The last thing he heard was the voice of Edward Elric: “We need to stop him!”

And then he stood in a completely white and empty space.

Behind him hovered a stone gate with a tree-like structure on it.

But in comparison to Edwards Gate of Truth that Harry knew out of the manga, his had also runes and magical symbolism on it.

Fascinating? Isn’t it?

"Yes, it is.” Harry nodded as he looked at his very own Gate of Truth, trying to engrave every last detail of it into his mind. “Did you ever see one like this?”

I have to admit that this is the first time I have ever seen such a unique one. But it had to be expected. After all, you are very different from the people that usually arrive here, Harry Potter. No, Wanderer.

At the word Wanderer, Harry turned around and looked at the only figure that was here with him.

Truth is a metaphysic being that resides in this realm. Harry’s believe it was also the God of the Fullmetal Alchemist World.

It was nothing more than a white, featureless version of his own body. That body had no notable features; even the voice was genderless and somehow male and female at the same time.

Impressed?

“You are pretty much what I expected. A bit taller, I believe, probably because I am taller than Edward Elric.” Harry replied, trying to calm himself while attempting to activate his system.

Yes, you would know that. And that won’t work here.

It unnerved Harry that he couldn’t really read the emotions of truth. “Why did you block my system?" And why did you call me Wanderer?”

Are you not? And you have no need for that parasite here.

“Parasite? So will my plan work without it? Or did I just waste thousands of valuable souls that I could have used for my own purpose?” Harry asked while wondering what truth could mean with that description of his system.

It depends on how you define work. At least not like you imagined it.

“What are you talking about? Why wouldn’t it work as I imagined it?” Harry is now even more nervous. First his system stopped working, then the truth called him Wanderer, the same word the shadow had used for him before his reincarnation.

Just what was going on?

Nope, not at all. But I have to be grateful. You were a big headache to me.

Harry couldn’t read Truth’s emotions, but the words themselves were ominous.

A Trojan Horse, is a good description you should know. Walking my world brings danger to it with every moment it is there. While I am unable to interfere with you, you are just out of my reach. Gamers are truly a scourge of existence. Always grinding, leveling up, and looting. None of you stopped to wonder, during your mad power trip, why someone would give you such a convenient power. Luckily, you decided to come to me yourself.

What was he talking about? For some reason, Harry’s mouth wouldn’t move anymore. As if truth didn’t want to be interrupted.

I have to admit. That scary thing behind you did it smartly, gifting you a power with a poisoned one of his own. But still, nothing in the world is free. Everything has a price. Often, you just don’t know the price until it’s too late.

At this point, Harry could just look frozen at Truth. Remembering the last glimpse he had gotten at the shadow before he had been reincarnated. Why had it been that different back then? Why did it conceal itself?

Anyways… You paid your toll. A big one. Souls and a lot of foreign knowledge. Knowledge from different worlds. The only ones with a similar offer were that little human in the bottle and Van Hohenheim. And I can remove you permanently from my world.

Remove?

Too bad for you. I am sure you are a nice guy, but I have no interest in watching you doom my world once you are out of my reach again. Not only can you open the gate, you can go through it. Every gate has to go somewhere. And I can make sure you won’t be able to return.

Fear.

He did have a bad feeling as soon as his system failed.

Was Truth planning to ensure that he wouldn’t survive wherever he ended up?

Harry had known there was the possibility that there was more to a Gate of Truth than just what was seen in the original manga.

After all, in one of the movies, it led to a completely different world.

But he didn’t think it would be weaponized in such a way against him.

What kind of death world was Truth planning to send him to?

“Sto-“ Harry gritted out, but Truth ignored him as the gate behind Harry opened up.

Goodbye, foolish human. Enjoy the truth you paid for!

Thousands of black shadoy hands once again grabbed him as they began pulling him into his Gate of Truth. No matter how hard Harry struggled, they were simply stronger than him.

The last thing he saw were the heavy stone doors close in front of his eyes.

Hiding the truth behind them as Harry emerged in complete darkness. Information is flooding his head.

———

Nico Robin, POV

Robin had lost the belief that she could just live in peace, read books, and study history a long time ago.

Until that fortunate day, she had met that strange boy. Harry Potter.

Alone, thinking of him brought a small smile to her lips.

He had given her the task of creating an espionage organization and an information network.

Right now, she was studying the history of this strange new world Harry had brought her to. She needed to know it in order to properly train the agents.

Wargs or skinchangers were very interesting for scouting and spying, but they still needed to be trained properly to be effective.

Also, they were rare. Even while looking to recruit them, they had only managed to gather less than twenty.

As effective as they were, they weren’t enough to put them to work in the whole of Westeros, especially since they needed some of them in the military and their fleet.

So she had to design a training plan to train regular agents as well.

Somehow, espionage was something that came naturally to her, as if it were in her blood.

“Robin-Sensei! Something is wrong with Tiamat!”, The door to her office opened loudly as Sugar rushed in.

“What is happening, Sugar? Where are your sister or lust?" Robin asked calmly. First, she had to figure out what was going on.

“They are still down at Port City, overseeing the construction effort. I was playing with Tiamat until she suddenly began to rampage as if she were in pain.” The small, green-haired girl explained quickly.

It was clear that she was scared. She had never seen Tiamat act that way, nor had Robin.

“Bring me to her!” Robin said as she stood up from behind her desk, following the girl.

Soon they arrived at the top of the mountain, where they were planning to one day construct a massive castle as the main seat of Skagos.

Tiamat was roaring as if she were in pain, trashing through the area.

Seeing that the dragon wouldn’t calm down, Robin grew determined.

Harry had told her about the applications of her Devil Fruit she would accomplish in the future. Including his own opinions on how she did it.

This was the result of her hard work: “Cien Fleur: Wing!”

Hundreds of hands sprouted from her back, forming wings, as she rose to the sky, getting close to the pained dragoness. She had to hurry; she couldn’t keep Cien Fleur up for very long.

“Tiamat! Calm down! What is going on?” But the dragon didn’t listen to her.

Having no choice, Robin flew even closer and jumped onto the trashing dragon's back, barely holding herself on it. She had a hard time keeping herself there, as Tiamat was moving violently.

Robin climbed closer to the head of the young dragoness. “TIAMAT! CALM DOWN!” Robin shouted as she tried to pet the dragon soothingly.

This seemed to wake Tiamat up as a voice resounded in Robin's Head, ‘Robin… he- he is gone.’

“Who is gone?” She asked with shock. Please no.

It couldn’t be. He had said he was planning something stupid, as he had called it. But he seemed so confident that it would work.

‘Harry! I can’t feel him anymore. He’s dead. Gone!’ Cried Tiamat in anguish in her head.