Hogwarts: Harry Returns from Azeroth

Chapter 221, Section 220: The Death Knight and Nico's Gift
“Yes, Harry, that’s the Hall of Death,” Dumbledore said softly. “The last time I saw it, it looked just like this. The curtains were drawn back, and the winds that seemed to be blowing on them all the time were gone. The curtains were no longer fluttering. I didn’t realize that Nico had foreseen this situation—”

Dumbledore's words came to an abrupt halt, and his eyes widened suddenly.

Not only him, but Harry held his breath at that moment.

What did he see? !

A bluish-gray halo suddenly appeared in the center of the archway, like a circular door. The energy emanating from it stirred the curtains again, causing them to spread outwards. But even more incredibly, a pair of metal combat boots decorated with skulls suddenly stepped out of the door and landed heavily on the ground.

Before long, a knight clad in plate armor emerged from the door. He wore a skull mask, with ominous blue light emanating from the area around his eyes, and sharp horns on the top of his head. His shoulder armor was decorated with asymmetrical bone spikes, with a giant spike on his left shoulder and runic chains binding his right shoulder. He was fully armed from head to toe, covered in skull reliefs, with blue eerie light occasionally emanating from each of his bodies.

“…A Death Knight?!” Harry muttered unconsciously, hardly believing his eyes.

“Death Knights? Death?” Dumbledore and Nick asked simultaneously. “You know them, Harry?”

“We were indeed comrades who fought together to protect the world, but… the line between the dead and the living has always kept them apart,” Harry said solemnly. “Judging from his robes, he should be a member of the Knights of the Ebon Blade.”

The dark red background features a black rune greatsword with a blue border, its hilt pointing upwards and its tip downwards—the battle robes that identify the Black Fang Knights.

“I didn’t expect you to be able to recognize who came out of here,” Nico said with a smile. “To be honest, it really makes things easier for me. The unknown is always more terrifying than the known.”

“You probably have a lot to tell us, Harry,” Dumbledore chuckled. “How about we start with the Knights of the Ebon Blade?”

“I—I’m sorry—I don’t quite know where to begin.” Taking a deep breath, Harry was unusually at a loss for words. “I never imagined I would see them in this world—Nicole, this is the future you divined. Can you tell roughly when it will happen? How accurate are your divinations?”

“All I know is that this is something that will happen in the future,” Nico said, shaking his head slightly. “As for accuracy… in my past experience, my divinations have been quite accurate.”

“Yes, Nico successfully foresaw Grindelwald’s gathering in Paris, which is why we had the opportunity to make the necessary preparations,” Dumbledore said astutely. “What’s wrong? Why do you look a little nervous? Harry, aren’t the Knights of the Ebon Blade your comrades who fought alongside you to protect the world? I thought you would be happy to meet familiar friends again in this world.”

“Well… things in that world are a bit complicated. The Black Wind Knights… they are all resurrected undead,” Harry said with a wry smile. “To put it simply, there was once a world-destroying being called the Lich King. He slaughtered a human kingdom and resurrected the dead as his minions. At the same time, he also killed some powerful paladins and resurrected them as his death knights.”

"The Black Knights were originally the Lich King's minions. They had no independent thought and acted solely to obey their master's orders until the Lich King's power was shaken and cracks appeared in his control over them."

"In short, too much happened during that period to explain in a few words, but the final result was that the death knights and undead who regained their sanity betrayed the Lich King. They joined our side and took revenge on the Lich King."

“Resurrected dead…” Dumbledore’s expression was somewhat subtle. “In that world, could magic really do something like this?”

"No offense intended, but it sounds like the Black Knights are supposed to be righteous?" Nico removed his hand from the edge of the crystal ball, and the image inside vanished without a trace.

“Undead… well, as a member of the Horde, I shouldn’t make such a divisive assessment of the Horde members,” Harry said, frowning. “But the fact is, the living don’t really want to go to Undercity, well, Undercity is the main city of the undead.”

"Why? Are you discriminating against them?"

“You can’t understand, and I can’t understand either. The dead and the living are ultimately different,” Harry explained. “As the great prophet of the Minotaur tribe, I have been to many places and dealt with many dead. They are just too… twisted.”

"When the Lich King was alive, things were fine. The undead were bound together by vengeance. But after the Lich King was killed, I always felt that the undead had lost a rope that kept them sanity. They saw themselves as an independent race, but in my eyes, their race had a fatal weakness: they could not reproduce independently."

"Do you understand?" Harry emphasized, "The undead, they have lost the favor of life, and if they want to develop their own race, they can only resurrect the corpses of other races and make them new undead—this is the fundamental and irreconcilable contradiction between the undead and the living."

“…I think I understand what you mean,” Dumbledore said, his expression turning serious. “So, you actually can’t determine what purpose this Death Knight of the Ebon Blade came to this world with?”

“Yes,” Harry said solemnly, “I don’t even know why he was able to walk out of that archway in the Hall of the Dead, nor do I know what happened there after I left Azeroth, but I do know what the undead are.”

"They have lost a series of senses, including taste, touch, and smell. They cannot breathe, laugh, or feel the sunlight—they can only feel the eternal cold and their own decaying bodies...and are therefore filled with hatred for the living."

“Jealousy,” Nicole suddenly murmured. “I guess they’re jealous of everything they’ve lost… just like those ghosts.” “Death has permanently taken something from their hearts,” Harry commented. “It’s made them cold and ruthless. Some of the dead even think that killing the living and resurrecting them is giving them freedom.”

“That’s truly…terrible,” Dumbledore murmured, looking at the now empty crystal ball.

The room fell silent for a moment. Dumbledore and Nick were pondering the information Harry had just revealed, while Harry's mind was unusually chaotic. He was thinking about why the Death Knight of the Ebon Blade had appeared from the Hall of Death, what kind of connection his world had with Azeroth, and the Kane family, Magatha—and even Jaina—if the Ebon Blade could come to this world, what about his relatives and friends?

Under such a tremendous shock, a mix of thoughts intertwined, making it almost impossible for Harry to think calmly.

and most importantly -

“…I may have brought dangers to this world that you can’t even imagine,” Harry suddenly broke the silence, saying abruptly, “If the Knights of the Ebon Blade were able to come here because of my travels between the two worlds…I am a sinner in this world.”

"Although the Burning Legion has been defeated and the Dark Titan Sargeras has been imprisoned in the Pantheon, the dangers, ambitious schemers, and conspirators in that world have never diminished, nor have the Death Knights... I'm not sure if they've discovered this new world, or if they harbor ill intentions towards it, or even if they see it as their source of troops—"

“Don’t think so much, Harry,” Dumbledore interrupted Harry abruptly, looking even more serious. “You didn’t travel between the two worlds of your own volition, did you? I mean—according to the secret you told me, you woke up one morning and went to that world called Azeroth, spent decades there, and then returned to this world in a dream—none of this was under your own control, was it?”

“Albus is right,” Nicole nodded in agreement. “You are merely a passive recipient, child. Even if you have brought danger to this world, the responsibility should not be placed on you.”

"Instead of considering that, let's discuss how to deal with the arrival of this... Death Knight," Dumbledore joked. "I'm not sure if the Department of Mysteries will allow you into the Hall of Death, and even if you become the Minister of the Ministry of Magic, you can't interfere with that."

“If they can’t realize the seriousness of the situation, then we probably can’t just let them do as they please. I need to make some arrangements in the Hall of Death beforehand, at least to restrain these unfamiliar guests.” Harry had calmed down again and said firmly, “I don’t know what kind of power is hidden in the Department of Mysteries, or what extent wizards’ magic can go, but I can be 100% sure that ordinary wizards are absolutely no match for them.”

“Every Death Knight is a master of dark magic. They are messengers of frozen doom and masters of withering and decay. They can not only control and corrupt life energy, but also guide runic energy to attack enemies directly. They can also spread magical plagues and summon undead minions. Especially the last one, ordinary people simply cannot resist the plagues they spread, nor can they bear the pain of their loved ones who have just been killed standing up again beside them and killing them instead.”

“Only a magic master like you, or a wizard whose strength is close to yours, can fight a Death Knight head-on… To be honest, I don’t know your chances of winning, after all, I’ve never seen you go all out,” Harry said to Dumbledore.

“It sounds like you’ve already placed them in the position of enemies,” Dumbledore said seriously, staring intently at Harry’s face. “I thought you would identify more with that world called Azeroth… for example, your comrades? Family? Lovers?”

"Please forgive me for being so blunt, Harry, but it was precisely this bluntness that impressed me," Dumbledore asked with utmost seriousness. "In any case, judging from your current reaction, you are approaching them with a defensive attitude, which is indeed surprising."

“No one can stand idly by while there is killing and war. I stand on the side of justice,” Harry said softly. “War between mortals is already brutal enough, and the peace after war is precious enough. This world does not need any more external forces or powers to make it more cruel. That’s all.”

Even though he was a member of the tribe, and even considered a high-ranking member, Harry knew exactly what was going on between the Alliance and the Horde. If these two sides discovered that there was another completely unfamiliar world, then just to avoid falling behind the other, the Alliance and the Horde would start a war on this land.

This is how the arms race came about.

“Well, it seems you’ve come to a conclusion,” Nico said tremblingly. “I’m so glad that Perenel and I no longer need to worry about these complicated matters… I have something I want to give you, Harry.”

Nico stood up again. Today's exercise was perhaps a bit excessive for him, to the point that even walking to the next room became difficult—but in the end, he still came back with a book in his hand.

“You are a very good boy, Harry,” Nico said weakly. “This assessment has nothing to do with Albus; it is merely my own conclusion—you respect an old man like me not only because of our age, but also because of our wisdom—you have great respect for knowledge.”

“This is a very good quality.” Looking at the book in front of him, Nico’s eyes showed nostalgia. “It’s a pity I can’t teach you anything myself, Harry. I have to spend the rest of my life with Perenel… So, accept this.”

Nico pushed the book off the table toward Harry.

"I am willing to give you all the books I have collected over the past six hundred years, including my own book notes—but now, of all the knowledge I possess, I want to personally hand over this book to you."

"The Book of Abraham the Jew?" Harry murmured the book's title.

(End of this chapter)