In the distance, snow-covered mountains stretched across the horizon. Sunlight bathed a cluster of classical buildings, their stone walls and upturned eaves appearing especially solemn and serene under the reflection of the snow.
Inside one of the grand halls—
A bald woman in a white robe stood by the window, holding a folding fan. She listened to her disciple Kaecilius's report, and only after a long while did she give a slight nod.
"I understand."
"Sorcerer Supre."
Kaecilius frowned faintly. Looking at the back of the Sorcerer Supre—his teacher, the Ancient One—his thoughts churned.
Fragnts of a secret he had once glimpsed surfaced in his mind, and his voice grew low.
"You once told us that the path we walk is not the pursuit of power, but of protection."
"Light is not the only form of salvation, and darkness is not entirely evil. What we protect has never been pure light, but the balance between light and darkness. Preventing either side from devouring the other—that is the responsibility we must bear."
The Ancient One did not turn around. She could hear the deeper aning beneath her disciple's words and responded with quiet implication.
"Responsibility?"
"What protection requires is judgnt—not rigidity."
"Judgnt… or compromise?" Kaecilius pressed softly. "We've spent our lives closing the doors to other dinsions, sealing away forces capable of destroying the world. We were taught that touching them would an being consud."
He paused, letting the weight of silence settle between them.
"But I've begun to wonder… whether the barrier we struggle to maintain is actually sustained by the very forces we claim to fear."
This ti, the Ancient One turned to face him.
Her gaze was calm, unwavering.
"You think the cost of protection is too high."
"I think we've been blinded by lies," Kaecilius said, eting her eyes. "Darkness may not be evil. Light may not be entirely just."
"I need it—but it cannot give what I want."
What Kaecilius sought had never been protection or justice.
After witnessing the death of his loved ones with his own eyes, he had co to truly understand the fragility of life. He had thrown himself onto the path of magic for one reason alone—to seek eternity.
That desire had gradually turned into obsession.
But as he delved deeper, he uncovered certain secrets—secrets about white magic.
He realized that while magic could grant extended life, it was not true immortality. Death would still co.
And after death, everything he had learned would vanish, returning to the Vishanti's magical dinsion.
That was sothing Kaecilius could not accept.
And when he had once glimpsed that the very Sorcerer Supre who protected the mortal world had also touched darkness, it caused him to question everything the Ancient One had taught about responsibility and protection.
The Ancient One did not answer.
She knew Kaecilius did not need one.
Kaecilius did not press further, because he already had his answer—his own answer.
He turned and left.
Watching the back of her most outstanding disciple, the Ancient One knew exactly what path lay ahead for him.
As the Sorcerer Supre, wielder of the Ti Stone, she could see the threads of future fate clearly.
In the past, this would not have stirred even the slightest ripple within her.
Because ti had been fixed—unchangeable.
But now, things were different.
For the first ti, she felt the desire to change it.
Everything had begun seven months ago.
The Ancient One had never imagined that the Sacred Tiline would be altered so completely by a single anomaly.
Moreover, with the tiline altered, the future had beco chaotic. Even the Ancient One could no longer see it clearly. There were now countless possibilities ahead, and even she could not determine which one would co to pass.
The Sacred Tiline had been changed, yet the universe continued to function as normal.
This defied the original logic of how the universe operated.
What was the Sacred Tiline? It was a path of ti that could not be altered. The universe had to proceed along it. Once it was changed, what awaited the universe could very well be destruction.
Thus, as the Sorcerer Supre, the Ancient One protected not only Earth's dinsion, but also this tiline.
There had been many anomalies before, but she had always quietly erased or corrected them.
This ti, however, when the anomaly nad Matthew appeared, she chose not to correct it.
She could sense that if she attempted to do so, the consequences would be unpredictable.
Other sorcerers revered the Ancient One, but she herself understood sothing clearly—anyone who toyed with ti would eventually be cursed by it.
She had seen a future that could not be changed, and so she had grown numb.
So numb that she was prepared to follow the predetermined course of history and wait for the next Sorcerer Supre to appear, allowing her to step down.
But now, things were different.
The tiline had been broken, and the future had beco uncontrollable. Changing history no longer seed to lead to worse outcos.
In other words, everyone's fate could now be altered.
This realization filled the Ancient One with a long-lost excitent.
It felt just like the first ti she had stepped onto the path of magic, when she first encountered its wonders.
"Is your existence a blessing… or a curse?"
The Ancient One turned her gaze out the window. Beyond the snowy mountains, she seed to see the young man aboard a plane heading toward Saint Petersburg.
A boy who had once been nothing more than an unfortunate ordinary child had suddenly gained the power to control light.
As ti passed, his physical abilities improved at an astonishing rate. He could even manifest his will as a weapon—sothing that intrigued even the Ancient One.
More than that, the boy had begun walking a clear and determined path of his own.
The Ancient One had once tried to use the Ti Stone to glimpse his future.
But she failed.
The power of ti itself seed unable to grasp that boy's future—or perhaps he was no longer just an anchor within this universe.
He had beco sothing beyond ti's influence.
Where had this change co from?
Was it the will of this universe? Or the design of so greater being beyond her perception?
How fascinating.
A glimr of light returned to the Ancient One's once-weary eyes—the unmistakable spark of curiosity toward the unknown.
Perhaps… it was ti to et that boy.
…
High above the thick cloud layers, a transport aircraft sped through the sky.
Inside the cabin, Matthew heard Kalra's voice through his earpiece.
"Needy's dical results are in. They differ significantly from her previous records. Her DNA molecular sequence shows deviations from that of a normal human. There are abnormal segnts—directed alterations caused by unknown factors in the nucleotide arrangent. This isn't a random mutation."
As she spoke, the faint beeping of instrunts could be heard in the background.
"Compared to her earlier dical data, these anomalies appeared recently. They're concentrated in gene loci related to physical performance, regeneration, and neural response. That's the reason behind her enhanced body."
...
Read Advanced Chapters on : patreon/cw/OblivionTL
~ Every 250 PS = Bonus Chapter!
~ Push the Story forward with your [Power Stones]
User Comments
0 comments from readers