A large golden clock gear appeared. Rather than moving clockwise, it was rotating backward at a fast pace. Harry watched in fascination as the universe slowly rewind itself from its destruction. He witnessed the death of every being in the universe and the birth of life. He witnessed the dead come back to life, and the world reattached itself together as if the end did not happen. The cracks in the universe mended back together, and invaders of different dimensions disappeared. Harry witnessed it all happen. The clock stopped moving and released a loud bell chime before dissipating. As the clockwork ticked, Harry felt his existence rebuild itself once again.
Harry opened his eyes and found himself back in the white museum. Hedwig chirped and landed on his shoulder, rubbing against him affectionately. They were back, they weren't dead.
He turned to look at his body and found himself back in his original form, whole. No scars, injuries, or even a speck of dirt from the 'First Timeline' were seen on him. It's as if everything he experienced was a dream. Yet it was too real for it to be one.
Pushing the gas mask aside, Harry dropped down to his knees and released the contents of his stomach, staining the polished marble floors. He desperately gasped for air and scratched his aching throat until it was scratched and bruised. Hedwig flew off from her master and waited by the sculpture's pedestal.
[Welcome back, Harry °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°]
The system popped up while Harry rolled onto his back. Harry wanted to punch the smiley face out of the system, but he didn't have the strength to do so. Harry stayed silent, breathing heavily as he tried to stabilize himself. He didn't know how long he stayed like that, but the system was getting antsy and popped another panel.
[What was it like, experiencing the end (づ •. •)?]
"Horrible." Was all he could utter. He brought an arm up and covered his eyes. He wanted to cry, but no tears would flow out of his eyes, already dried from crying too much as he experienced the devastating end of the universe. He remembers the feeling of being torn apart bit by bit and shivered. He didn't want to go through that again.
"How many times has the world rewind itself?"
[I am unable to answer. ｜−・;）]
"Eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, I answered your question, so answer mine dammit!"
[Fair enough. 495 rewinds.]
Harry closed his eyes at the answer and gritted his teeth. "Fucking 495 tries, yet we're still in peril." He sluggishly got up from the floor and sat beside Hedwig. Everything that he went through replayed in his mind over and over again. If he hadn't emptied his stomach already, he would've vomited again. He gazed down at his hands and saw it stained with blood, but then disappeared once he rubbed his eyes. No good, he needs to rest before he loses his sanity.
[Player gets 01:00:00 rest time for performing well during the last stage. Please wait for the next stage to generate ヾ(о-ω･)ﾉ⌒ ]
After reading the system, Harry leaned on the statue and closed his eyes. His body may be doing well, but his mind is slowly deteriorating. Witnessing the death of humanity and dying alongside them wasn't something anyone could walk away from scathe-free. He shouldn't have asked for so much if he knew this would happen. No more, please—he internally begged but knew it was useless.
'God, I'm tired.'
"Hed, I'll be taking a short nap, kay? wake me up before the time runs out."
He didn't wait for a reply and immediately collapsed from fatigue. His body fell limp, falling off the statue and landing on the floor. He didn't wake up from the impact despite the harsh fall. Hedwig watched her master sleep and turned her gaze to the timer.
—
Dull ache in his head and a loud screech woke Harry up from his deep, short slumber. Hedwig pecked her master's face in an attempt to wake him up. Harry groaned and sat up from the ground.
"Ow… I feel like an old man in his 70s." He winced as he cracked his bones in place. They're still inside the doors, it wasn't over yet. A sigh escaped his lips as he embraced himself.
[Good morning (*`・ω・´)]
"How many minutes are there left?"
[00:04:38]
Harry had to squint in order to see the screen. 'Few more minutes.' He patted the floor in search of his glasses, which were kindly given to him by Hedwig. "Thanks.." Just before the time ran out, Harry sorted out his thoughts and did a recheck of his resources.
"Calm down, Harry. Just a few more to go." Harry chanted over and over again.
[Since there's been a large influx in the Player's soul, the System took it upon itself to accompany you for the rest of the journey]
[╰(°∇≦*)╮]
"Should I feel grateful?" he deadpaned.
[Of course! You are the only player in history to have the great System as your companion.]
[Therefore, don't tell this to anybody, even the sponsor ! （＞д＜）]
"And what if I tattle?"
[(; ･`д･´) ]
[The system will have to pay the price for intervening.]
"Fine, I won't tell as long as you're useful."
[٩(^ᗜ^ )و ´-]
Harry stared blankly at the black screen and decided to ignore its weirdness. Strangely enough, it brought him comfort—even just a bit. Once the timer was done, four doors rose from the ground. Each door had corresponding colors: green, yellow, blue, and red. This must be an identifier to know what's behind the door, he thought.
'Is this related to the door categories? Or are they hints?'
[The System presents to you the four door types!]
"I can see that, care to explain more?"
[The System can only provide an explanation once you've tried out the doors. This is the system's restriction for helping out the player.]
Harry nodded and placed on his gas mask as a precaution. He went to the door on the furthest left from him, the green door. A familiar weight settled on his shoulder and gave an approving hoot. The door opened and revealed a void, calling him in. He took a step forward and was embraced by the darkness behind the door.
Like a seamless transition, Harry was inside a bubble found deep in the ocean where light could not penetrate–he was in the abyssal zone of the ocean, which is around 3000-6000 meters below the surface. Harry adjusted the mask settings to allow him to see a bit despite the lack of lighting. Just before the bubble, there was a giant red fish with an atrociously large set of teeth and white eyes, signifying its blindness. Harry felt his heart leap out of his throat when that was the first thing he saw. Thankfully, the abyssal fish hadn't sensed them just yet and swam along the dark waters. Before Harry could release a sound of relief, the system suddenly popped out of nowhere.
He definitely did not jump out of fright. That was Hedwig.
[An ancient serpent dwells within the ocean floor and has slumbered for thousands of years due to unimaginable magic sealed within a pearl. The pearl is hidden together with the serpent's body and has been untouched ever since. Due to its nature, monsters of the abyss searched for the pearl and the serpent in order to gain power.]
It was a brief background information of the world they were in. It is quite handy since it lets players get a gist of what is expected of them. It's much different from the first door, where it only gives a vague idea of what's happening.
[
Objective (Players can only choose one):
Prevent the awakening of the ancient serpent
Seize control over the ancient serpent or the pearl
Eliminate the monsters of the abyss that wish to steal the pearl (0/1000)
Time Limit:
117:59:03
]
Harry's brows furrowed while he tried to convert the hours to days. He wasn't one for math, damn it. That was Hermione's forte. He only had five days to complete one of the objectives, not including the time he had to search for the pearl. No time to waste then—they needed to move before something bigger appeared and ate them whole. The bubble moved according to Harry's movement in order to protect him from the extreme pressure under water and prevent him from losing oxygen. However, they had yet to know how fragile the bubble was and how long it would take before it popped.
'The information said that the serpent is within the ocean floor, I need to descend more then.'
The bubble slowly descended into the depths, according to Harry's instructions. It was so silent and dark, nearly scarce of life, which bothered Harry. Not once did he ever get the chance to swim in the pool, much more in the ocean. The first and only time he'd seen the sea was when the Dursleys were running from the Hogwart owls.
No, he retracts that statement. The first door was the second time he'd seen the violent seas again, and it was a memory he'd rather forget. However, seeing how uncanny the ocean is underwater makes Harry feel grateful that he'd never swam in it before. Just the imagination of Dudley drowning him or being left stranded out of nowhere leaves a bitter taste in his tongue.
Harry could see the floor by now, but before the bubble could descend any further, something large popped out of the ground. His eyes shrank as he hastily dodged the sudden attack. It looked like a deformed sea eel, about twenty feet long. It must've felt the bubble's movements and went to lunge for another attack. This time, two more eels followed, revealing themselves from the sand.
"Mother fucker, they're everywhere."
He didn't want the test the bubble's durability by poking holes through it, which left him no choice but to cast spells while trying to make it appear outside the bubble. Sweat trickled down Harry's back as he forced the bubble to dodge incoming attacks.
"Diffindo!"
Harry cursed when the spell shot out of the bubble, which decreased in size. "Fuck! At least one's down! I think?"
The eel he inflicted a wound on screeched and lunged at them.
"NEVER MIND! PROTEGO!"
A weak shield stopped the eel's bared fangs from stabbing the bubble, but it wasn't enough to hold for so long. It slowly cracked under the monster's tremendous strength and completely shattered. It was a spell that only a few can master, it's already a miracle that Harry could cast one wandless even if it's far from perfect.
"Hahaha, just where I want you to be." He grinned manically as he pointed at the monstrous eel. "Glacius! Incrementum!" The teen single-handedly used double casting, causing ice to spread to the eel's body. With the use of the second spell, the ice was augmented and started homing the other two eels. The ice took the form of a snake, which chased the remaining eels. Harry watched as the ice snake bit the eel and caused ice to spread in an instant.
"Phew, this is quite handy. That's all the eels, right?"
Harry counted the frozen eels but found one missing. His instincts kicked in, and the heels of his boots turned into metal spikes that pierced the head of the half-frozen eel, which snuck up from behind. The eel slithered around in pain, but Harry held his ground and pressed his boots further into the eel's head. A few seconds later, the eel stopped moving and slipped out of the bubble.
Once again, the bubble decreased in size, leaving only a five-by-five-meter area for Harry and Hedwig to move around. "Merlin's beard, this bubble will pop before the time even ends." he groused to no one in particular.
"System, are you gonna be helpful now or what?"
[Yes sir (`･ω･´)ゞ]
An enemy radar appeared before Harry, revealing any nearby monsters. Thankfully, the nearest monster was a hundred meters away, which was a huge relief. Not only that, there was a hint of white mist that seemed to be leading somewhere.
[Enemy radar and pearl locator have been generated! Be sure to use them efficiently.]
"Thanks, you're actually helpful."
[(／≧ω＼)]
The system soon dispersed, but the radar and the trail remained. He carefully followed the trail and avoided any creatures as much as possible to preserve his bubble. The third task was looking too glum since he couldn't possibly fight everything while restricted within a five-by-five area that could give up on him anytime during battle. Though, he honestly doesn't know if he can do the first task either.
The system worded it as if it wasn't asking the players to eliminate the ancient serpent. There are only three options: eliminate the serpent, control the serpent, get the pearl, or eradicate any threats that will awaken it. They're all connected to each other in a way, fail to prevent one of them, destruction will be the outcome.
It took nearly a day to search for the serpent's dwelling. Had it not been for the system's help, the search could've lasted longer. There are only four days remaining. Without any further hesitation, Harry dived deeper into the dark cave. Compared to the eerie entrance, the cave was designed with glowing crystals illuminating the wonderful rock formations and rare minerals that could only be found in the depths.
The deeper he went, the more crystalized his surroundings. "Huh, it's unusually beautiful compared to the outside." If he thought Hogwarts was grand, the serpent's lair was grandiose. The giant head of the sea serpent lay on what seemed to be the ruins of a castle, its body lazily wrapped around the structure until it fell off to the crystal platform. The castle ruin is found on a large crystal formation that extends to the Hadal zone, just like the serpent's tail, which Harry could not see the end of because of how dark it was.
Awe and fear shivered down Harry's spine as he imagined the chaos this serpent could bring once awakened. It made the third option seem like a sweeter task now that he'd seen it. There's no way he can kill that thing. Much more control it, that would be god's work, only people insane enough would try those options.
[
Jormungandr
An ancient serpent whose body is coiled around the world underneath the ocean depths. It was said that Jormungandr is a child of a god that's been sealed for slaughtering dozens of deities.
]
"You're telling me that this is one of the beings that invaded Earth during the end? I fuking god-killer?! Merlin's beard, I might as well kill one thousand or more monsters than this one."
[Just know that if one monster slips by you and enters this lair, you will be forced to face both the ancient serpent and an enhanced abyss monster. Once that happens it's game over.]
"What's up with these risks?!"
[Player needs to proceed with utmost caution when deciding which task to pursue.]
"No shit! It's as if I'm stopping a major event from happening—oh."
He finally gets it—the purpose of the players. It's no ordinary doors filled with deadly trials, players are actually dispatched to different dimensions to stop an event that will lead to the world's end—to stop the dimension collapse. Fuck, that's a lot of responsibilities and pressure against the players, what the hell was the time god thinking?!
[Ding Ding! You figured it out! (〜^∇^)〜]
Harry groaned and pressed his masked face against his palms. He swears, the moment Death manifest before him, the first thing he'll ever do is chuck the scythe at the god's head.
[So what's your decision, Harry?]
"Does it look like I have a choice? It looks like I was followed by nosey bastards."
It may look like Harry wasn't paying attention to the radar after he entered the lair, but he kept a close eye on the blinking red dots that slowly made their way to the cave's mouth. He didn't know what took them so long to get there since there was no issue when Harry arrived.
"Actually, how come everything has been sailing smoothly when I entered?"
[That's because there are sets of runes creating traps and barriers that prevent the abyssal monsters from finding this area. However, these runes weakened over time, and all that was left was to destroy its remains.]
[of course, the system led you safely, too! ( • ̀ω•́ )✧]
"Right, now shut up before I lose my concentration."
[Okey…(｡•́︿•̀｡) ]
A/N
Hello! Sorry it took so long to upload, kinda got stuck in the making. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I'm tryna set up a twitter acc to post some concept arts related to the fic, but I just can't get it to work QAQ I'll try to upload a chapter dedicated to HP reference sheet + wep
update: I FINALLY GOT TWITTER FIGURED OUT (I think)
check out yumekui-sensei to see concept art and references :D
/yumekui_sensei/status/1740646951534965195?s=61