Chapter 1017

".... Strange mists descended on the five naive young adults. They were immediately knocked out flat. Unconscious as their bodies changed, morphed, trying to accommodate the power that was trying to shape them."

"...."

Gustav paused dramatically as he turned to his men behind him, then his gaze drifted to the sky to look at the massive wormhole and the ships.

"Upon waking up, these five found out that they could wield powers that could only be found in dreams... fantasies even.

Fire, lightning, shadow, time magic, spatial magic, earth magic... all of these were wielded by us at first. Looking at the sky, the gate was gone after doing its job. And the book? It had vanished totally, with nobody knowing where it went or what happened to it."

Turning back around to look at Grey, he smiled.

"... Well, who cared? We were now powerful. Not in the wealthy noble way, but in a physical and magical way.

Ha! We went back to the Empire and after helping out here and there—displaying our affinities; the five commoners who were practically invisible to the world suddenly became revered as gods.

The fame and wealth the five sought, they got it within mere months as they were able to repel attacks from the enemy Empires. A single one of these five was enough to render armies totally useless, like they were nothing."

"...."

Grey’s breathing had now become ragged.

But he pushed himself to listen to what the man was saying.

".... While the other four were out practically saving humanity and building their reputation, the fifth didn’t participate. The five were known as Originals and soon, we called ourselves mages.

But something was missing.

Yes. We had it all; fame, wealth, and power, but there needed to be something else to it. We were termed as gods, but we could become something more. Universal protectors and not just mere warriors against some annoying Empire. I saw the vision, but the others didn’t."

A bitter smile crept onto Gustav’s face as he continued;

"As the days passed, I became less and less active on the frontlines and soon enough, I was becoming forgotten day by day.

I barely came out as I was busy trying to come up with a way to push our mythos to the next level.

I tried reasoning with the other four, yet they refused to see reason to my words. They wanted to keep playing hero.

Months, years passed and soon, I was becoming forgotten.

The fame I had was being lost at an astonishing rate, especially since that damned Blake decided to play his own game by engineering a way for humanity to awaken their affinities and form a mana core."

"...."

"... He was successful as expected because one of his four affinities helped him. Humanity became mages, but not all could wield these awesome powers. Hence, those who couldn’t wield them were called ’Cripples’ just like you were called when you were younger."

Grey’s jaws tightened as he glared at the man but offered no words.

"The same divide we were trying so hard to bridge, this bastard created it again with the mages versus mundane humans plague.

Anyway, these four decided to create four academies in order to teach and train these new mages on how to use their powers."

Gustav paused as if recalling something.

"... Can you see that I was basically sidelined? Four academies? Where was the fifth? Ha!

Anyway... oh! Then one fateful day came after about five years of being forgotten, Blake suddenly ’saw’ a vision and manipulated the others against me saying I was going to destroy the world.

Those fools believed him and they all turned against me, trying to seal me, but I managed to escape with my life from this accursed world. For fuck’s sake, I didn’t even do anything. I was too lazy to do anything."

Gustav sighed as if reliving the past hurt for some reason, and it did.

Yet, he continued:

"I escaped from this empire and this world totally while vowing that I will take my revenge on Blake and this world for forgetting me. But I couldn’t do it as weak as I was, hence I ran away. Escaped from this world in total. How I did? I didn’t understand. On one of my endless journeys, I stumbled against a gateway that led into a..."

Gustav paused as he looked at Grey.

He smiled and then shook his head.

"... Don’t worry about what I found there."

’Huh?’

Grey’s mind quickly flashed back to one of the paintings where he saw a man in a black robe standing before a weird gateway that sent shivers down his spine upon looking at it.

"A few years later, I found him." Gustav said while pointing at one of the zodiacs behind him who was quite bulky.

From the little gaps in his robes, furs and scales could be seen peeking out.

"Then I decided to attack. Wasn’t Blake worried that I would destroy the world? How about I start with what they had all built? So I attacked with him, but I made one fatal mistake. While I was busy gaining power, my foes had been so busy that they not only increased in strength, but they had an army and influence that ran incredibly deep."

"..."

He paused as he thought for a few seconds before lifting his head.

"I’m sure you must have learnt in one of our histories that a massive dungeon break had occurred and one of the Originals died taking down the ultimate beast inside it?"

Grey’s brows knit together as he surfed deep within his memories, and that was exactly when he recalled learning something like that during his academy days.

Instructor Clark had specifically mentioned that historical catastrophe.

A beast so incredibly strong that it claimed the life of one of the Originals—mages who were widely believed by humanity to be entirely immortal.

Gustav smiled, easily seeing the sudden realization dawning on Grey’s face.

"Yeah. Jim here was the one who actually took down that Original," he said, pointing directly to the bulky zodiac who simply crossed his arms in response.

"Jim—Upper Zodiac One. The very first zodiac to join my grand cause."

"...."

"Anyway, that brutal battle didn’t come without a heavy cost, though. I was severely weakened from the clash and I had no choice but to retreat.

There, in hiding, I had more than enough time to think properly.

What did I do wrong that made me fail so miserably? I was an Original just like them, so what happened?

That was when the truth finally clicked in my head.

Of course. I had been studied for years by them. They knew my exact strengths and vulnerabilities.

Though I knew some of theirs too, I didn’t know the full extent of their standing armies. So, I needed to learn and unlearn everything in order to completely defeat my foes."

Gustav cleared his throat as he loosely crossed his arms across his own chest.

"... I sent Jim away from this world so he could rapidly grow our influence and acquire more men for our cause.

And me?

I decided to go completely undercover. I needed to learn all there was to know about this world, especially since the old Empire had broken down into separate Kingdoms at that time.

I needed to know every single hidden detail.

So, I went from town to town, city to city; permanently disguised as a simple commoner.

Well, my early years of being one certainly helped.

The remaining Originals thought I was long dead, hence I continued working quietly from town to town, trying to uncover every single piece of information about this world. Libraries, factories, schools—nothing was left unturned."

"...." 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Grey swayed dangerously from left to right again, but he quickly regained his footing before he collapsed entirely from exhaustion.

"On one of these endless journeys, that was exactly when I met her. Your mother—Clara."

Grey’s eyes and ears sharpened almost immediately at the mention of her name.