The Ancients

by Adam-Clay Webb

  “Then why wrestle with the spirit? If my mind is beyond its power, why would I need it to begin with?”

  “Even though your mind is greater than the spirit, it still has the power to make your mind even stronger. Having existed from the early days of magic on earth until now, adding its essence to yours will greatly strengthen your ability to see through time.”

  “I see.” This certainly piqued Vis’ interest. Maybe with this spirit, he thought, he would finally be able to see all things, even the beginning of time. “But the spirit fears to enter to me, as he could not co-exists with me, but simply be melted into my mind.”

  “Yes.”

  “So have the spirit come to a new decision after this wrestling you speak of?”

  “No. It fears that entering you will make your abilities too dangerous – allowing you to unlock truths that no man should ever see.”

  Vis smirked. “Man?” he asked. He stood and walked over to Jin. “The Spirit Shift technique is said to be only usable by Oga,” Vis said. “Indeed that might be true. I have tried using it, but there seems to be some sort of barrier placed on that technique that transcends time. Thankfully, that is not the technique that I will need to extract this stubborn spirit from you,” Vis said.

  “Extract the spirit?” Jin asked nervously, looking up into Vis’ eyes, which were now sinister-looking.

  “The spirit of truth is not really a spirit. It does not exist in the soul,” Vis explained. “Instead, it is a mental consciousness kept alive not by existing alongside one’s spirit, but by existing alongside one’s mind. Therefore, the technique I need to use…”

  Vis gently rested his hand on Jin’s forehead, and the old man closed his eyes involuntarily. “Mind Shift,” Vis said. In that moment, Vis had entered into Jin’s consciousness. Vis travelled through this formless realm until he encountered the consciousness that he was looking for – the spirit of truth made by Oracle.

  Unlike the realm of the soul, this world could take no physical representation. But Vis’ mind was so strong that this did not matter. The world was still quite perceptible to him. There in Jin’s mind, Vis conversed with Oracle’s creation.

  “You say you are the spirit of truth,” Vis said, though not in words, but in a purer, mental language. “Yet, your ignorance is greater than your knowledge. Tell me, wise spirit, tell me about the beginning of magic, the beginning of our world, the beginning of the universe, the beginning of time.” Of course, this spirit did not know the truth of these mysteries. “Or better yet, answer me this… who is it that gave me my abilities?”

  “These questions… I cannot answer,” the spirit answered contritely.

  “Come on to me, and I will show you these things,” Vis said. “I will attain all knowledge, and know all truths, and solve all mysteries… that is my destiny. I offer you the chance to escape your pitiful death and rise to a higher plane. Join me, and we shall become…”

  Before Vis’ statement could be finished, he felt the spirit of truth surrender itself to him. The spirit of truth dissipated in the vastness of Vis’ power.

  Vis stepped back from Jin and returned to his chair. “It is done,” he told the old man.

  Jin opened his eyes. He could feel it. The spirit had indeed left him and gone to Vis. He had witnessed, in an obscure way that he could not fully understand, the meeting between Vis and the spirit.

  Jin struggled up with his cane and walked over to Vis, and rested his hand on the young man’s head. “You really are a special boy,” he said. “Now, all things are in your hands. There is a final thing that I must do.” With that, he left the house. And Vis never saw him again.

  But Vis had no time to miss or wonder about Jin. Over the next two years, he honed his mental prowess to even more bizarre levels. He had learnt to use the Mind Shift ability not only on people, but also on time itself, seeing the memories of time – seeing clearly into the past. But his perception was still quite limited. He could see far back enough to understand how magic on earth began. He saw the Mananka, and even studied magic on a deeper level than even Oga could have. Still, Vis was not satisfied. He could not manage to see beyond the arrival of the Manaka. He wanted to see the very beginning of everything. He knew that even though his mind was more powerful than any other since the birth of mankind, his problem was his lack of mana.

  His magic was still too weak to allow him to realize the full potential of his mind. He believed that if his magic became strong enough, he would be able to see time in its entirety, the past and future, from beginning to end.

  And so, Vis began a new phase in his training. While not having given up on the Crystal Eye, he saw it necessary to raise his magic to its maximum potential. He created for himself a timeless realm, in which he trained – like those sorcerers generations before him did using the subdimentional balls – until his mana had reached its limit. In this timeless realm, he trained for the equivalent of one hundred and twenty years. His mana had reached the very edge of arcane power, but he could not push it to reach the bridge.

  Now an arcanine, he could manage to see even further into the past, but he still could not reach to the beginning of the world. There was now only one thing that could push him farther – the Crystal Eye.

  And so, more than ever, he needed to make this idea of his a reality. As he worked harder on this project, he found it was becoming more difficult to focus. He had become so used to working with Shade on this that working alone made him feel handicapped, incomplete. Day after day he sought after Shade, but could not sense his presence, even with his level of perception. Vis feared that his friend was dead.

  He would often replay that strange scene in his mind, where Shade seemed to have lost his magic. He could not understand this, and it was frustrating. One night, about ten months after Shade’s disappearance, Vis went back to the beach where Shade had told him who he was. He stood on the sand from midday until night, pondering, searching for answers.

  When he was tired, he slept there, but even in his sleep, his mind continued to search. In his dream he saw the fight between Shade and his family and the councillors. He watched the intense battle. Brutal spells were used to slaughter Shade’s parents and sister. Though the strong the family was, the battle against the councillors was pretty one-sided. Shade looked about at the horror. He stood in the midst of the four unharmed councillors, his parents and sisters all dead – their bodies deformed and burnt up.

  With all the strength he had left, he ran toward the barrier. One of councillors, with folded arms, laughed as the boy ran passed him, certain that he could never break through the barrier. As the boy reached to the barrier, Vis’ mind slowed the action so he could see it clearly. Shade’s palm touched the barrier, and something quite strange happened. Vis perceived at the molecular level that the mana that had forged the barrier simply vanished into nothing, and so the entire barrier disappeared, and Shade ran through, and shifted away.

  Vis jumped up from his sleep immediately, standing on the sand. “How did I not see it…” he marvelled to himself. “That’s it… Shade, you have unlocked the third path… This power…” Vis shook. Now, more than before, he feared that Shade was dead. “I must find him.”

  And with this, Vis journeyed out in search of his friend. For months he searched, through villages, cities, forests, caves. Until one day he ended up in an important place. Deep in a forest hundreds of miles from Jin’s house, Vis encountered a strange building. Acres of land were cleared out, and in the midst of this forest was a massive structure. He went toward the building, which was hidden from the world, but discovered by the desperate searcher.

  He knocked on the massive door, but there was no answer. It was unlocked, so he went inside without the use of magic. As he entered the place, he was greeted by a marvellous sight. The massive building had several rooms. As Vis visited each room, he would see either a sophisticated laboratory, with potions and scrolls and maps and theories all about, or a library of ancient writings.


  “What is this place?” he asked himself. Jin’s materials were nothing compared to this. He searched the rooms until he came upon a room with something even more interesting – a person. Lying asleep with his head in a book and a feather in his hand was a man. Scattered about this room was research that Vis was all too familiar with. As he glanced around, Vis knew that the Crystal Eye was being studied here. Not only that, but the progress made on the project was beyond the progress that he himself had made.

  “Shade…” Vis whispered, still standing there.

  As if hearing his name, the man awoke. “You have found me,” Shade’s voice came. He stood and turned to face Vis. Vis could hardly recognize this face. There was a despondent look in Shade’s eyes. His unkempt hair and lost expression made him appear insane. No doubt, Shade had been drowning himself in this project.

  “How could you do this?” Vis asked. “Twice I saved your life! Twice! And you abandon me! You gave me your word, Shade, that you would stay by my side!” Vis didn’t even know that this anger was in him. “And this, this was supposed to be our work!” Vis blasted, and toppled over Shade’s desk fiercely, rousing his black mana.

  Shade stepped back with wide eyes. “You have become… even stronger,” he said.

  Seeing the look in Shade’s eyes, Vis lowered his magic. “Why did you leave me?” he asked.

  “I had become… useless,” Shade said. “My original goal was to go back in time and reverse Oga’s existence. And then I met you, and I vowed to protect and train you. But then…”

  “Fool,” Vis said, and went up to him. “You did not lose your magic!”

  “What? Even now, Vis, I cannot bring myself to summon even first grade mana!”

  “Why continue to work on the Crystal Eye?” Vis asked, “Since you are no longer a wizard? How will it be of use to you?”

  “I had planned to finish it and offer it to you, as a repayment of my debt. I have almost completed it,” he said, now sounding a bit proud. “With this, you will have enough mana to power your mind to its true potential. You will be able to see all things. That is your dream, isn’t it?”

  “You fool,” Vis said, and tears ran down his face. “We are meant to pursue or dreams together.”

  “But how can I--”

  “Fate has acknowledged us, Shade,” Vis said. “We have each been given the power to fulfil our dreams.”

  “What do you speak of?”

  “Shade, in all of history, you are the third sorcerer to reach the bridge after the seventh grade. I myself have pushed my sorcery to the very limit, but the bridge is beyond my potential. The first two who reached the bridge--”

  “They are the gods,” Shade said.

  “Yes. Oga, the first, walked the path of perfect magic, reaching the eighth grade. Kizer walked the path of elemental power, becoming the god of elements. Thousands of years later, you reach this same bridge. But because of your ambition to destroy magic, you have created yet a third path. You, Shade, have created a new element… antimagic.”

  Shade gasped. Never had he even imagined the possibility of this. But then, as he remembered how he destroyed the Ogal barrier when he was a child, it made sense to him. This potential must have been within him from the very beginning, when his dream was birthed.

  “You are fated to destroy Oga, but not by travelling back into time. Those called gods will be resurrected thousands of years from now. They will try to rule the world and oppress it in another dark age, but you, Shade, are created to stop Oga. It is not magic that you must destroy, but those who misuse it. The Ogal Council, and all relics of it, must be destroyed, and that is your mission.”

  “And what of Kizer?”

  “I don’t yet have the power to see the future clearly, but there is a boy who is fated to fight Kizer.”

  “The boy from the prophecies? Were not those prophecies written by the gods to propel their schemes? And wasn’t it Trium that the boy is supposed to fight, alongside the gods?”

  “This boy will be deceived for a time, and he will indeed fight Trium, but he will learn of the truth, and so he will fight against Kizer. But he will not be alone. There will be a great war, Shade. I can see it vaguely, like a vanishing dream. We will be in this great war. Together, with this boy, and those who will side with him, we will destroy the gods once and for all. But before this war comes, there is an even more imminent war that will happen,” Vis said. “This war is our deadline to perfect the Crystal Eye. This war will be a necessary opportunity to obtain the final pieces of the puzzle. With this item, we will be able to destroy the gods and rescue our world. And then we will become its guardians.”

  And from there on, the two worked together again, until their idea was made complete. Between that time and the time of the Ionide War, they would gather all the missing pieces of the puzzle, and the Crystal Eye – albeit with the help of three others – would finally be made a reality.

  Chapter 22: The Watcher

  Clover moved hurriedly through the unfamiliar school. The place looked quite different in the dimness of night, but she tried to remain sure that she knew where she was going. Somehow, she just knew it – that whatever the weird boy had scribbled was something she needed to see, something of utmost importance. But as she walked past the many classrooms, she noticed a problem – they were all locked. The place was saved from darkness by dim bluish lamps that lit the many criss-crossing walkways. Being anxious that Emmy might have woken up, she almost missed the beauty of the endless stretches of intervalling blue lights.

  Disobeying her sense of reason and following her strong intuition, she hastened her walk toward the classroom the note was in. Only a few students were up and about on the campus. As she looked around, she saw that there was a little gathering a few chains off. She soon saw it to be a kiosk or something of the sort, where students were buying food and drinks – probably study food.

  “Well, at least I can assume it’s not illegal, being out here this late,” she told herself, not knowing that all who she saw out were actually seniors, who were allowed to be out that late.

  Still gazing out to the small gathering, she distractedly neared the classroom. As her eyes moved front and centre again, she stopped and stepped back with a jolt. She sighed heavily. Her heartbeat was racing. Standing in front of the locked classroom doors was the same strange-looking boy.

  “Come with me,” he said, almost in a whisper, and moved off straightway.

  Clover hurried to catch up with him. “You knew I would come,” she said, sounding half-confused and half-impressed. “Who are you? And where are we going?” Somehow, Clover just knew that, despite the appearance of the circumstances, this boy wasn’t up to anything that would endanger her – so he convinced herself anyway.

  “Don’t be nervous. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t hurt you,” the boy said. His hands were deep in the pockets of the thick sweater he wore. It was a red and grey sweater with the Notherlandian crest on it, and some small writings. Over his head was a hood that almost came all the way down his forehead to meet his glasses.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean you’re a very powerful witch – you’ve reached even the seventh grade of magic at that – a feat mostly only councillors could even dream of accomplishing.”

  Clover stopped as he said this. Is he as spy? How could he know this? Is he too a powerful sorcerer? Is he working for Oga? All these questions rushed through Clover’s head.

  “Cover, please keep walking,” the boy said, not slowing down.

  Clover hurried to catch up to him.

  “I am a friend,” the boy said. “My name is Ruben.”

  “How do you know of me?” Clover asked.

  “I have been watching,” Ruben said. “I have been watching everything.”

  Clover wondered just what this ‘everything’ entailed.

  “Another war is about to ensue. Things have been sped up by the approach of a new enemy, so time is against us.”

&nb
sp; “A new enemy?” Clover asked. “Do you mean Oga and Kizer? Wait – where are we?” Clover asked, looking around in confusion. All of a sudden, she was in this giant room with maps and scrolls and crystal balls lying about. In the midst of everything was a thin mattress that lay on the floor and a half-eaten bun on top of it.

  “While walking, I triggered a few spatial switches that opened up a portal to this place. Welcome to my bunker,” he said proudly. Clover spun around. She moved quickly from wall to table to shelf, realizing that this place had information that was far from ordinary. There were detailed maps of the world, and particularly of Libson and of even Magma Town. Clover gasped as she saw something even more shocking on a distant table. It was a portrait of herself. She rushed over to it and grabbed it up. “Careful!” Ruben gave out.

  “What the--” On a huge sheet of paper, below her portrait, was a detailed description of her, including where she was from, her sibling, her grandfather, where she had been, the battles she had fought, everything. As she looked further, she saw one for Lex also, and one for Kyle. Zen, Mike, Star, Azar and Blade were not left out. There were many more. Details on Ogal Councillors were also there, and many other important players.

  “Who the hell are you? What is this place?” the now nervous Clover asked.

  “In saving time, I won’t go into details about myself. My father worked in a special division of the Notherlandian military. World Surveillance. A sector tasked with predicting threats and important political, military and technological developments around the world. My father was the head of the division, and I used to work along with him. I helped them find algorithms that created ground-breaking surveillance technologies.”

  “Wh—what?” Of course, Clover was confused. Who wouldn’t be?

  “Last year, my father and his entire team mysteriously disappeared. Since their operations were so covert, shoving it all under the carpet wasn’t too difficult for the government.”