Chapter 1 - Kr'Tall the Second Keeper

Disclaimer:

I don't own the characters or the world appearing in this story, they are creations and property of the fantastic George R. R. Martin. I'm not sure if I can claim my OCs as my own, so I'll play it safe and dedicate them to GRRM.

Author's Note:

Hello guys! If you're seeing this, then thanks a lot for picking up my story! It's my first attempt at writing a good-length story, so it might be a bit rough. I hope you can stay with me throughout the journey!

You'll find more of my musings at the end of the chapter. Now don't let me keep you any longer! Have fun!

It was a unique sensation for Harry to just suddenly regain consciousness. He found himself sitting on the visitor's end of a very nice wooden table in a very inviting room. The room seemed almost tailor-made for him, it checked all of his interior design needs. A small but cosy room, with a sort of British look to it with the wallpapers and carpets. His mom has kept pestering his father to replace his home office table for a while now. He was making do with an old plastic table, something which has been in the house since before Harry was born. His mom would like this table.

Returning to the situation at hand, the reason for terming this 'regaining of consciousness' as 'unique' was because Harry did not recall losing it in the first place. But more importantly, it was due to the man sitting on the other side of the table with a very charming smile. Harry was sure he'd never met this man before and even more importantly he had no recollection of getting to this place either.

"Yes! I would have been very surprised if you had known how you'd gotten here. I designed this room just now, especially to host you after all!" the man said with an arch look.

Harry was understandably brought out of his musings. The fact that this man had read his mind did not surprise him for some reason. Also, any confusion he had with the situation seemed to be dialled down quite a bit.

"Yes again! Gamer's Mind tends to do that to protect keepers from harsh effects on their psyche. But don't you worry, nothing I give you will ever be detrimental. Unless I preface it as such of course," the man continued on, having read his mind yet again.

Harry spoke for the first time since waking up in this nice room.

"Who are you and where am I?"

The man chuckled with unhidden humour on his face. "ahhh! A straight shooter! But that's one of the reasons I chose you I suppose…"

"Right!" the man cleared his throat to set the mood for the conversation. "So, Harry, you've been removed from your world to be provided with a purpose."

"A purpose?" Harry repeated.

"Yes, A higher purpose," the man said, "Though I suppose I should have introduced myself by now."

The man leaned back into his chair, straightening his back whilst also smoothening his outfit, which was really classy, Harry noted. "I am Kr'tall (Pronounced 'Kar Taall'), the Second Keeper of the multiverses."

Harry raised his eyebrow but the man–no, God, if what he said was true–just continued on with an amused glint in his eye.

"Just like how I'm choosing you to be the next keeper, I was chosen a few hundred million years ago by Alan, the First Keeper."

"We've both been monitoring anything and everything for a long– long time, and now the time has come to choose the next person to join our ranks," he finished simply.

Whatever Harry had been expecting, this wasn't it. He was caught flatfooted and it took some time for him to digest the information. Kr'tall waited patiently with a small smile on his face for Harry to ask his next question.

"Okayy... I am definitely questioning a lot of things in my mind right now but may I know what this entails and why I was chosen?" Harry asked.

"I'd imagine so," said the man, "While the keepers are the most powerful entities in all time, in every multiverse, there are always other entities trying to gain power for themselves."

"While that in itself is not something that we condone, after all, we keepers ourselves were mundane powerless entities at some point, some of these entities do it in ways that alter the code of the universe. We, Keepers, make sure that these people are taken care of before they do any lasting damage." Kr'Tall explained.

"As for why you were chosen," Kr'Tall looked at him with some expectation, "It's because you are a perfect candidate for immortality. Your mind is even better suited for it than Alan's."

"Immortality is a very volatile state. It is something that ninety-nine percent of souls can't handle beyond a few hundred years," he said.

Kr'Tall gestured towards his right and suddenly two people materialised in that space. A man and a woman.

"These are two of my spouses. Enit is a bit more than a million years old while Ka'rim (Pronounced Kareem) Is just over sixty-six thousand years old."

Ka'rim and Enit smiled at Harry, while Kr'Tall continued on. "While there are some entities, like Enit, who are capable of handling immortality for a long time, only a rare few can continue forever. I have lost 6 spouses to the passage of time in my lifetime, and now Enit has–"

Enit cut in before Kr'tall could finish. "–decided to pass on," she smiled softly at Kr'Tall while he returned a sad smile.

"I wanted you to witness her passing on," Kr'Tall said turning back to Harry.

Kr'Tall vacated his chair, only for the table and chair to dematerialise. Harry followed, only idly noticing that his chair own had vanished as well.

Enit kissed both Kr'Tall and Ka'Rim one last time, and sent a small smile towards Harry, bidding him goodbye. Kr'Tall moved forward and touched her chest and she–just–disappeared. There was nothing left over, no fanfare, no nothing. She was there and then suddenly she wasn't.

Ka'Rim bid him bye with a small smile before vanishing off. Harry saw some glistening at the edge of his eyes.

"Ahem…" Kr'Tall cleared his throat.

Harry was gaping in shock.

"What the hell is happening!?" Harry exclaimed. Even Gamer's Mind's currently high tuning couldn't sort him out.

Kr'Tall chuckled at his expression. "You just saw what happens to a person when they choose to pass on Harry."

Harry took a huge breath and exhaled slowly.

He lifted his head to look Kr'tall in his eyes. "I'm gonna ask you simple questions and you are going to keep answering me with simple sentences. Is–that–clear?"

"Crystal" Kr'tall nodded. "Though there are some questions that I just cannot answer at this point."

"Alright," Harry nodded, "So you are Kr'Tall and you rule the universe?"

"I monitor and remove dangerous individuals from multiverses," said Kr'Tall, correcting him.

"What do you mean by multiverses?" Harry asked.

"Each multiverse has multiple universes and there are multiple multiverses," Kr'Tall said as if that cleared up everything.

Harry shook his head. Even his simple sentences were unclear. "How many multiverses and universes are there?"

"Unlimited for both, there are new planes of reality created all the time," Kr'Tall answered.

"Uggh!" Harry clenched his hand, ready to sock the fool. Then just as suddenly as it appeared, all the emotion seeped out. With a sigh, he looked up at Kr'Tall, who seemed unaffected by his entire display.

"Okay, are you saying I have to take care of these multiverses now? Am I all-powerful and immortal now?"

"Not exactly, You've been chosen to join our ranks as the next Keeper. While we will give you immortality, that doesn't mean that you're all-powerful. You will have to amass power slowly by taking it from other entities in the multiverse," Kr'Tall answered.

"How do I take power from other entities?" Harry asked.

"By killing them of course," Kr'Tall answered smoothly.

Harry was shocked for just a second before his emotions were smoothed out.

"I thought that's what you prevented, people gathering power through untoward means?" Harry questioned with a scowl.

Kr'Tall laughed at that. A genuine hearty laugh.

"Ha! Killing is not what alters the code of the universe, Harry. Death is just a part of life," Kr'Tall said with a small smile.

"So I'll have to kill people?" asked Harry.

"Yes I'm afraid so, You can do without it, of course. It'll just take more time. Although, we both know you don't have a very high aversion towards the deed, don't we?" Kr'Tall said with an infinitely wise smile.

Harry just glossed over it to the next question. "So what happens now? I just go home and start killing people?"

Kr'Tall chuckled again. "Oh, by the old ones! Not at all! You are not going back to your home universe. At least not until you obtain the power to freely travel the multiverse without aid."

"What about my life back home? And my parents?" Harry asked.

"The moment you were brought here, you were wiped from the multiverse. There is no trace of you left. Your parents don't remember you anymore," said Kr'Tall.

"So I can't say no?" Harry asked with an oddly blank look.

"Again we both know already. This excites you too much to decline," Kr'Tall replied back with the same blank look.

It was true. Harry's life had lost all charm since he got his college acceptance letter. There was simply nothing to do.

For the first time since this whole ordeal, Harry's face displayed positive emotion. The grin on his face was feral.

"Yes I suppose I won't," Harry said with the grin still on his face.

Kr'Tall's face morphed into a similar grin for the first time in this encounter as well. It was a bit unsettling. His handsome face was not suited for such a grin. "I knew that already after all."

"So how are we doing this?" Harry questioned.

"Well, I'll drop you off on a planet and you'll slowly start amassing power. You'll get an AI companion to help consolidate and categorise power. Any gifts that we Keepers wish to share with you will be sent through your companion," Kr'Tall explained.

"This is gonna take millions of years isn't it?" Harry stated conversationally.

"Depends on you really. I know you've already guessed that you aren't my first attempt at choosing the next Keeper. I've made six attempts so far and well– the fact that you are here makes their fates pretty self-explanatory," Kr'Tall said, "Just because you are immortal doesn't mean that you can't be killed. You'll have advantages of course but it depends on how you capitalise on them."

Harry took some time to internalise the information. He went through quite a lot this day. Then finally–

"Alright, let's begin," Harry said.

"Hmm... I was thinking of sending you to Kuoh, just to start things off. Shall we start wit–"

"Wait what?" Harry interrupted, "Kuoh? It's real?"

"Fictional worlds are just echoes of other universes, Harry, most of the times sparked by multiversal travellers. Alan himself is from one of the Wizarding worlds or you might know it as the Harry Potter world," Kr'Tall explained calmly.

"Oh-kayy…" Harry said, his mind working at a furious pace. "Then I don't think Highschool DxD is a very good starting point. It has some very powerful people and if I start at the bottom, they'll be thousands if not hundreds of thousands of times more powerful than me."

"Is that why all six of them met such untimely ends?" Kr'Tall said thoughtfully. "It is a suggestion really, you can ask for something else if you prefer. Though if the world has nothing to do with the supernatural your gains might be very slow."

"I was thinking of the 'Game of Thrones' universe. The power scaling shouldn't be too much to handle," Harry suggested.

"Yes, that is a decent enough option. If you are sure then we can move on to any appearance change you might wish for."

Harry was a huge fan of the medieval-sword-and-kings-genre. His choices were deviating between GoT and The Witcher but ultimately he chose GoT. At least he won't face any actual monsters.

"Yeah, let's move on. How do I change my appearance?" Harry asked.

A mirror materialised to his side. "Just think about it and adjust it to your liking," Kr'Tall said.

Harry had decent enough genetics already. An oval face, brown hair, black eyes and a slim body. At the age of seventeen, he measured 5'10.

He started with his body type. He preferred a fairly muscled body to a swimmer's. Also, it made a lot of sense for the world he'd chosen. He would need power and strength to use a sword.

He started with a swimmer's body type and kept increasing the muscle mass till he reached a decent middle ground of someone who lifts but also does cardio. He especially made sure that his shoulders were nice and wide. He was a bit self-conscious about his slim body type.

For his face, he already knew what he wanted. A jawline like Superman himself, and Witcher too he thought to himself. His current face shape was oval with a sharp chin like those boy band members and it made him look girlish. He definitely won't be keeping that. His hair colour was changed to black. He put more effort into his eyes though. He really liked heterochromia so he decided to go with two colours. A nice purple for the left and grey with amber-golden specks near the pupil for the right eye.

For some reason, his complexion was set to a pale skin tone with what seemed like a healthy tan the moment he picked his hair and eye colour. He definitely got the feeling of being able to change it when he started customising.

Finally, he took a step back and took everything in at once. Although he was tall enough in his current life he would need to be a lot taller in a world where people fought with swords. He played with his height for a bit, a little bit with his arms and then his face. Before long, he reached something where everything just seemed to fit. He could afford to be a little vain when it was handed to him on a silver platter. Looking at himself in the mirror, Harry could confidently say that he had never seen a more handsome man in his life. And that was saying something since Kr'Tall wasn't anything to scoff at. Although Kr'Tall's charm seemed to lean towards a sexy professor than a knight or a warrior.

"Seems like you're all done," Kr'Tall looked him over.

"I think so, I keep feeling like I've forgotten something but I don't know why," Harry said.

"I wouldn't know, I'm afraid," Kr'Tall said a little evasively, "But let's move on to the final part of it! Your companion and blessing!"

Kr'Tall moved closer to Harry and touched his chest, just like he did with Enit. There was no change to what he was feeling at all, but he could suddenly see words floating in front of him. He intuitively knew what the words were and their meaning.

[ Status

Name: Undecided

LVL: 1

STR: 1

END: 1

DEX: 1

CHA: 1

INT: 1

WIS: 1

Points: 0

Perks

Gamer's Mind

Gamer's Body

Skill

Mind Reading ]

It seemed like his companion system would help him consolidate his abilities through the use of points and also keep track of the abilities that he gains.

He had also been granted a blessing, as a starting advantage. In this case, he had gotten Mind Reading!

"This is… too useful, what are the drawbacks?" Harry asked.

"None at all! When the power comes from Keepers it is always the most powerful variant, at least until we develop a better variant. You should be able to read anyone's mind unless they have Gamer's mind. Which doesn't really matter, since only keepers have Gamer's mind," said Kr'Tall.

Harry was pensive for a moment.

"How are you able to read my mind then?" he asked.

"You haven't consciously reached out to Gamer's mind yet. When you do that– ah see now that you've done it, even Alan and I won't be able to read your mind unless you allow it," Kr'Tall replied with a proud look.

Harry took a moment to think everything over. He focused on looking at the system a bit more.

"You don't seem very upset over losing your wife," Harry stated, with a little trepidation. However accommodating the man had been, he was still an all-powerful being after all.

Kr'Tall eyed him, without showing any emotion. Then with a sigh, he allowed a sad smile on his face. "We had already made our peace with it, Harry. I wanted to show you and delayed it until I felt you were ready. I want you to know that in the next hundreds or thousands or millions or even billions of years that you might live for, people are going to die, and you have to live with it. Just like I am now."

They were both silent for a while. Harry visibly tried to cheer himself up.

"Okay!" said Harry, "I think I'm ready. Unless there is anything else you want me to know?"

"Not at the moment, no. Good luck on your journey Harry!" Kr'Tall said with a soft smile. He moved forward to touch his chest.

"Wait for a second!" Harry exclaimed at the last second. "Can you clear my parents' debt? Pay off the loan for our house and car?"

Kr'Tall nodded at him with a chuckle. "Yes, I can."

Harry's eyes widened. "Also make them the richest people in the world?" Harry tried.

Kr'Tall mock glared at him.

"No," he heard before everything went black.

Author's Note:

You've reached the end! Thanks a lot, once again. As I've already said, this is my first attempt so things might be a bit rocky, I hope you can hold out.

I've been wanting to write a medieval fantasy story for a while now and recently gamer fiction has become a guilty pleasure of mine. Hence, when this idea started to take root, I just couldn't stop myself! I am a sucker for happy endings and characters living a good life so I do understand that GoT is probably not the best choice to write a story about. But I just so wanted to do this!

I have an outline for the story in my mind. It keeps changing constantly, but it's there. I'll try and introduce stakes to the story but don't count on it. It is my first rodeo after all.

I plan to publish at least one chapter each week. I'm currently writing the 3rd one and I'm not burnt out so far, so I definitely have hopes to keep this going for some time. I too have been affected by the author-not-finishing-the-story-and-disappearing syndrome, so I definitely won't let you guys suffer through it if possible. On the off chance that I do succumb to it, I'll let you guys know. And that's a pinky promise!

To finish off, even though I consider myself to be at least moderately good at English, it still is my second language. Hence don't hesitate to point out any grammatical mistakes or any other mistakes for that matter.

Consider pat reon if you wanna support. It is ahead by a few chapters.

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