Chapter Text
Gellert Grindelwald was having a pleasant lunch in his dark cell until that thing came.
[ Scum Saving System 025817581 is online and has successfully bound to the host. ]
[ Host: Gellert Grindelwald ]
[ Introduction: Do you feel like the entire world is against you? Do you feel cooped up in these prison walls? Don't you wish to live freely and enjoy life's experiences? Or maybe even hook back up with your ex-lover? System can help achieve most of the host's desires as long as the host successfully accomplishes System's tasks! ]
Gellert Grindelwald paused for a moment from the ringing sound that came from a transparent blue window in front of his face, and then burst into laughter, spilling the water in his mouth all over himself.
"Hahaha! I've finally gone mad, ahaha- " *Cough* *Cough*
Grindelwald wheezed and continued to chuckle as he muttered, "Must be the dust. It probably somehow got into my brain."
[ System agrees. The host is crazy. System can help. ]
"Help? You can help me get out of these shackles?"
He held up his arms and exposed his bony wrists. There was a metal bracelet on each of his wrists, personally charmed by Albus Dumbledore to restrain him no matter how thin his wrists get.
His last gift to Grindelwald.
[ System will partially remove the magic block on host's shackles by 35% as an introductory gift. ]
Grindelwald could feel the affects of the unblock immediately as he felt his magic flow through his body for the first time in decades. His breath slightly shuddered and something surged in his heart.
After a moment, he nastily twisted his lips into sneer, "So are you the devil, or something of a similar nature?"
[ System is not a devil. System is -Host's privileges are too low, please raise access level- ]
Figures, what a useless question he just asked.
"And Scum Saving System? I suppose I am scum, but does it look like I'm worth saving hmm?"
[ The host is selected randomly out of a pool of eligible members. System doesn't have a choice. ]
[ Unfortunately. ]
"What do I have to give in return for your help? What are these tasks you speak of?"
[ The host will complete tasks that the system issues to obtain rewards and points. Tasks will consist of jobs that the host can achieve with their current capabilities. There will be penalties upon task failure. Rejection of task is unacceptable and will meet a penalty of death. ]
Grindelwald felt his neck being choked on something invisible, something similar to a shrinking collar for a brief moment. His eyes flashed dangerously. This entity undoubtedly held an incredible amount of power over him without needing to establish any formal agreement with him.
He gasped out, "Ha, you want me to be your slave? And in return, you'll give me some moldy carrots for being a good dog? Tell me, after how many of your so-called tasks do you plan to dispose of me?"
[ System wishes for a peaceful cooperation. System does not have privileges to dispose of the host as long as the host does not reject any task and makes a recognized attempt to complete their accepted tasks. ]
"You sound more like a parasite the further I listen to you. Leave. Find another host to suck blood from. I don't have what you are looking for."
The system ignored him and another screen shown up.
[ Tutorial Task: Escape from Nurmengard ]
[ Reward : 10 points + ???'s memories ]
[ Failure: ??? penalty ]
[ Rejection Penalty: Death ]
[ Accept ] [ Reject ]
"I reject."
The window didn't change.
He tried touching the reject box on the projection window.
Still, nothing.
"You defective-"
Grindelwald halted. The screen changed only slightly, but it was enough for him to retract his hand.
[ Rejection Penalty: Death of Albus Dumbledore ]
[ Accept ] [ Reject ]
Grindelwald's eyes widened slightly as he snarled, "How do you have control of other people's lives? Are you not only bound to me?"
The system ignored him again.
Grindelwald clenched his teeth together and tried again, "More importantly, why would you think I would care about the life of Albus Dumbledore? Do you know who I am? Are you stupid? Who do you think got me imprisoned here?!"
[ Rejection Penalty: Death of Albus Dumbledore ]
[ Accept ] [ Reject ]
Of course, as expected, nothing changed.
Grindelwald glared at the blue window for a while, and a timer showed up on the screen.
Countdown: 10
9, 8, 7...
5-
"I accept, you little shit!!!"
---
Grindelwald felt like he just swallowed a bug. Everything about the whole situation is ridiculous. An unknown entity has somehow invaded his mind and promises him unimaginable rewards in return for completing its tasks. If it came decades earlier, perhaps he would even rejoice in such an opportunity to rise up again, but now...
What is he even doing? What is the whole point of this? There's nothing out there for him to reach out for. Nothing he desired was left. He clenched his hand over his chest, trying to grasp something that was no longer there.
[ Friendly reminder: The guard will check up on the host's cell at 6:00 pm and magically scan the host's cell for traces of magic. The host has 5 hrs and 21 minutes left. ]
"Stop calling me host you parasite."
[ What would the host wish for System to call host then? ]
Grindelwald's eyes twitched in annoyance, but then curled his lips, "Since it seems I have not much choice in this matter, at least give me some semblance of having one. Call me master."
[ … ]
[ Yes, master. ]
"Would you like me to call you trash or garbage?"
[ …Neither. Master can call System Re or 581. ]
"Trash it is then."
[ ... ]
Grindelwald pushed the scattered papers that were littered on the ground aside. The ink on the parchment was already half faded away, but his eye still caught the corner of one of those papers.
And a bout of accidental magic shredded that piece of paper into pieces.
Brilliant. Now he had even less magic to work with.
He paused for a moment, and then grabbed the broken quill and dried ink well under his cot. He used his magic to heat up the ink, and wrote a message on his last empty piece of parchment. Then he laid the paper down in the corner and neatly stacked the ink well on top of it.
Grindelwald got to work on the blood runes he planned on using to silently overpower the guard that came to bring his dinner and scan his cell.
Blood magic was a field that he did some extensive research on thanks to the blood pact he made with Dumbledore. It was a field focused heavily on the sacrificial elements of magic. Blood magic is incredibly powerful and usually only required minimal amounts of magic to empower it, but it always came at a cost to the user.
It would be worth it though, as Grindelwald would gain access to a wand after knocking the guard out for the rest of the night.
[ So what was the cost of the blood pact? ]
Wonderful, that dratted system had access to his thoughts as well. He was sure he had his occlumency shields up from the moment he perceived it. The good news was that it also meant the system didn't know everything. The bad news was that the system would eventually know everything due to his uncontrollable thoughts.
He muttered, "That's none of your business!"
[ Heavy cost on the caster, works on the soul, System understands... ]
[ Also a cost upon breaking the blood pact... Which one of you broke it? ]
"Shut up! I'm trying to concentrate."
Grindelwald dug his nails even deeper into his skin to force the blood to drip on the floor. Lovely. Looking over all the mistakes he just made, by the time he was finished, he would probably go anemic. Not to mention he still had to draw a concealment rune array. He needs every second he could possibly gain if he were to escape from Nurmengard in this condition.
An hour or so passed, and he finally finished drawing and infusing his magic into the rune circles. Terrible work. Barely sustainable. He would not be able to draw the maximum amount of power from them, but it was enough. At least it was better than any wandless magic he could perform with 35% of his magic reserves.
He laid on his cot, dizzy from blood loss. He thought about his plans to escape. It felt somewhat strange and oddly refreshing to revisit hypothetical plans he had made several decades ago. He decided to go with the simplest and most straightforward one. Simpler plans tend to introduce fewer errors. Theoretically, he should have some backup plans as well, but he didn't really have the drive to think about them with his currently addled brain. He was probably better off with improvisation anyways. There were too many factors he could not account for.
A wave of nausea hit Grindelwald all of sudden, and he struggled to stay awake. He had to stay awake. Else, Merlin forbid, the newpaper's headlines tomorrow might just be "GRINDELWALD'S ONLY ESCAPE ATTEMPT A COMPLETE FAILURE" and it's contents be something like, "Grindelwald faints from severe blood loss from drawing what looks to be child-like drawings of ancient runes....."
His struggle was in vain and a familiar darkness took over him.
-----
[ Master has 10 minutes before 6:00 pm. ]
Grindelwald groggily sat up and reluctantly opened his eyes. Looks like he took his afternoon nap after all. At least it feels like he replenished some of his magic with this rest.
"And you couldn't have alerted me earlier?"
[ System did not detect a need for doing such a thing. ]
Grindelwald sighed, and moved his body in front of the door where the blood runes were drawn. Even though they relaxed much of their guards over the years, he still had to be quick about the whole process. Come to think of it, there used to be at least 5 aurors when they came for the evening cell inspection. The lack of security was proof of his exemplary behavior as a model prisoner, excluding the occasional hysterical fits he threw.
Here came the familiar sounds of heavy footsteps and jingling metal keys.
Grindelwald's heart started to race for the first time in decades. He almost felt as if he was young again from the adrenaline rush if he wasn't reminded by that sharp pain that emerged from his usual throbbing back pain from him suddenly straightening his back.
One chance. He had one chance.
The metal door creaked open, and Grindelwald immediately activated the blood runes.
He saw the guard's eyes glaze over, and whispered, "Pardon me Mr. Steiner, but I have no choice. "
The guard crumpled to the ground as he finished the sentence. The multiple layers of protective charms the guard had on him produced no effect against the blood runes.
Grindelwald swiftly activated the concealment array and dragged the guard inside the cell. He took his wand and stripped him of his uniform, grunting as he put on the clothes and morphed into the guard's appearance. He made sure to cover his sleeves well
He looked at the knocked out, nearly naked guard for a moment. Then he lifted him up onto his cot, and covered him with his ragged blanket.
This would have to do.
He hurriedly stepped outside of his cell for the first time in nearly 50 years.
---
The metal bracelets on his wrists heated up as soon as he stepped one foot out of that room.
Should have figured Dumbledore would put a tracking charm on them.
Dumbledore should be alerted by now that Grindelwald escaped from his cell. Well, it's not like Grindelwald could do anything about that even if he wanted to. He won't be able to dispel any of Dumbledore's spells in the disgraceful state he was in anyways. He raced down the long spiraling stairs.
[ Temporarily disable tracking charm: 10 points (duration: 1 hr) ]
"..."
"Points?"
He recalled that successfully completing his task only gave him a reward of 10 points. So what was this inane system trying to say?
[ Points can also be bought. ]
Bought with?
[ Points can be bought with life or memories. ]
[ Master's current lifespan: (approx.) 10 years (can be added) ]
[ Life is exchanged at ratio of one point per day of lifespan. ]
[ Memories, on the otherhand, are exchanged at a variable ratio. Generally, the more important a memory is to master, the higher amount of points it can be exchanged for. For example, the best day of their life might be exchanged for around 1000 points, while the memory of an insignificant day might be worth around 0.1 points. ]
"How many points do I get if I exchange the memory of encountering you?"
[ ... ]
[ 100 points. ]
He stopped at the end of the stairwell.
"Exchange 50 points with life and disable the tracking spell right now for 5 hours."
He's sure that Dumbledore would arrive soon if not already.
He needed to hurry. He opened the metal door and start walking at a seemingly leisure, but brisk pace. It was a good thing that Steiner's shift ended as soon as he finishes his evening inspection. All he needed to do was to pass a few security check points with the badge he took from the guard, reach the front desk, and...risk confrontation with Albus Dumbledore who may arrive at that exact moment.
With his incredibly good luck, that was a very possible likelihood.
Unfortunately, the only entrance into Nurmengard was through the front desk and staying inside Nurmengard was not an option either. It will most likely go into lockdown as soon as they realize Grindelwald had escaped.
Hah, his back pain from making these strenuous movements makes him miss his cell already.
He went for the front desk anyway.
And looks who's there. Freaking Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.
-----
GG: I just don't get a break do I?
AD: And you think I do? I have to come all this way because you decided to play the Escape Jail card all of a sudden.
System: [ I'm the one that doesn't get a break...for eternity. ]