GREAT ANCESTOR

Outspace, Mobius of Arcana HQ.

Sorcerers made an agreement with the Gifted to not appear in public, keeping their existence a secret.

Naturally, they agreed to such because they saw nothing worthwhile in mingling with Eriss. They chose to seclude themselves to the artificial spaces that they created to study sorcery.

These spaces were usually created using Law Sorcery. Sorcery that allowed for one to manipulate concepts like space.

Large amounts of Essence were required to keep such a space active, and as such special gems were acquired through traversing the Spirit World or doing trade in Market Points.

The Headquarter of the Mobius of Arcana, lay in this particular Outspace.

It was a grand city that floated in the void.

Numerous glimmering buildings; skyscrapers, towers and mansions, could be seen with different ranges of colour.

On each and every building, one could see pulsing sorcery rings with different functions glowing faintly, making the entire city look mythical.

A semi circular dome that looked a watery bubble covered with city.

At the very centre was an absurdly large, spiralling tower with rows of what looked like windows, demarcating the 300 floors that it housed.

The material used to make it was golden in colour with a smooth lustre that made the vast number of sorcery rings inlaid on its surface all the more magnificent.

Beneath the city a faint dark purple mist constantly shifted and a long dark pathway led from the city into the dark space which was lit by what looked like thousands of miniature white suns.

At the end of the dark pathway, was a massive circular platform onto which a very intricate sorcery ring was inlaid glimmering with a blue hue.

It suddenly lit up at this moment causing for six figures to appear after a shifting mist danced all around.

Three Grand Sorcerers and three masked individuals walked from the sorcery ring.

As they walked, a robed man appeared and gave a bow.

"Grand Sorcerers Indrani and Akin," he said.

He then knelt on one knee and faced a man with sunflower blonde hair.

"Grand Sorcerer Amos," he said reverently.

Amos nodded.

"Take us to the Index," he said.

The young man abruptly stood and tapped his foot on the hard surface of the dark pathway, a soft glow rippling thereafter under his foot and spreading to cover all seven of them.

They turned into a mass of piercing light that travelled over the city and onto the spiralling tower in less than a second.

The light hit the wall of the tower without impact or sound and then ran up the walls to the topmost floor just as fast as it had arrived at the tower.

In a well lit room full of ancient but exquisite furniture, the seven figures appeared.

There were three wooden chairs with elegant embroidery of different colours and a crystal table between them.

The room was full of paintings on the walls and a vast carpet with the insignia of the Mobius of Arcana; a complicated reddish gold looking sorcery ring with a droplet outline in its centre.

"Gerald, go and fetch Harriet," Amos said.

The man who had escorted them here hurriedly bowed and turned into a mass of light before vanishing.

"Amos, should we really be disclosing this information? We could cause unrest and defection," Indrani said concernedly to Amos.

"Indeed Amos. I advise that you reconsider," said Akin.

"I understand your misgivings, but I assure you. Harriet is loyal. She is also a friend. She heads the largest school in the Mobius. I wish to cultivate her trust by giving her this information," explained Amos as he rested his hands on the armrests of the chair.

Indrani leaned forward on her chair and asked.

"To what end? What do you hope to achieve?"

"Indrani, the Order of Somacht has not only delivered blows to our numbers, but also to morale. There are a lot of defectors and some who don't even join the Mobius for protection. Even the Hidden Hands has been getting an ample amount of Sorcerers because everyone is seeing us as weak."

"Indeed. We haven't been able to push back the Order for 70 years. Our image is already accruing damage. The Order has ways to escape our grasp and its members are hard-core fanatics. However, the point is even these fanatics are keeping us on our toes. Disclosing the reason for their actions to our members could cause a rebellion," Akin chimed in.

"I'm aware. That's why I have decided on the one candidate I can trust. I want to cultivate a strong trust with the person who holds the largest school of sorcery in her hands. She deserves this much. A storm is coming. We need devout members who can see the bigger picture.

We can slowly inform other Sorcerers of the reason why this cycle of killing exists. A show of trust can go a long way. Keeping this hidden is only going to breed unease.

And just like the Gifted Halls said. This is a Sorcerer problem. The Gifted aren't as reliable as they were thousands of years ago. Let us keep them in the dark." said Amos.

As soon as he finished talking, Gerald returned with a tall woman.

She had caramel hair tied into a bun and sharp eyes that exuded wisdom and maturity.

(A/N: She's the Principal from Chapter 8).

She gave a bow to the Grand Sorcerers.

"Grand Sorcerer Amos, you called for me?" she asked.

"Yes. Please sit," said Amos as he prompted to Gerald who tapped his foot on the floor causing a white light to shine and a reveal a fourth chair afterwards.

Harriet sat down and patiently waited for Amos to speak.

"Harriet. How much do you know about the Order of Somacht?" Amos asked.

Harriet blinked and went deep into thought before answering.

"Objectively I'd say that they are a group of criminals who aimlessly take the lives of their own kind. That they should be brought to justice for their actions," she said.

"Yes? I assume there's a subjective side?" asked Amos.

"Yes," Harriet sighed and looked Amos in the eye. "Subjectively, I believe there is a valid reason for their relentless actions. And that its what I'm here for?"

Amos smiled slightly and rested back on his chair.

"Sharp indeed," he said.

"Many years ago, when different kinds of powerful beings appeared in Eriss and the other Modas worlds, the very first Sorcerer, whom we call the Grand Ancestor mastered Law Sorcery and went into the Spirit World.

There he met a powerful creature that told him about a great evil that had tried to make its way to the human world. An evil by the name Ozaemon.

It was by his hand that we now have the human world fractured into separate lands floating in the Spirit World. You know this right?"

"Yes," replied Harriet. "We don't have it in our curriculum for students because we fear causing unrest."

"That's only a half truth. The reason such isn't included in the books is because of the Great Ancestor himself. Telling the young ones about Ozaemon would require telling him about the Great Ancestor himself. A great blot in our Sorcery history."

Harriet wore a confused expression.

"A blot. Isn't the Great Ancestor the reason why we know about our history in the first place? The pioneer of Sorcery?" she asked.

"Indeed," this time Akin spoke. "That's only half the story as well."

"The Great Ancestor founded Sorcery and taught it to his kind. However, he was the first sorcery to reach great levels of strength and also the great bottleneck that all of us reach when we are at the peak of Grand Sorcery," explained Amos.

Harriet frowned already sensing the foreboding continuation of the story.

"In his thirst for knowledge, he traversed the Spirit World and gathered vast amounts of knowledge. He then spent a long time studying and experimenting, trying to find the way to reach the next level. True Sorcerer.

He sacrificed many and even made contracts with Night Spawn to learn from them. After a great deal of time, he finally broke through. He became a True Sorcerer.

His actions were not condoned, however. Many Grand Sorcerers sought to make him pay for breaking apart families for the sake of power, but they failed.

He then continued to study Sorcery and created his own Sorcery. It was a product of what his research and also the path which he used to break through.

Compound Sorcery," said Amos with a forlorn gaze.

Harriet was surprised by this information. She had revered the Great Ancestor and hearing this tale brought a heavy feeling in her being. She did not dare believe it easily.

"What is Compound Sorcery?" she asked.

Amos locked his hands and spoke.

"Compound Sorcery is Sorcery that harnesses the power of Gifted and Deviants," he replied.

Harriet's eyes went wide as she heard this.

"What? But how? Essence, Gift and Absol are three different concepts of energy! They can't possibly be used together," she said with a frown.

"That's what we thought. The Great Ancestor made it work. His research was comprehensible and he even had followers who inherited his knowledge."

"That's the Order?"

"No. His followers all died a long time ago. Most at least. The Mobius was created after the death of the Great Ancestor. It took three hundred thousand years for that man to die of age and that's when the Founder of the Mobius rallied all the Sorcerers he could find to stop the followers of the Great Ancestor.

It was unfortunate for them. They had his research but after he died they couldn't understand it as much as he could. None of them could reach the True Sorcerer Rank and thus, even though they were strong, quantity overwhelmed their quality."

Harriet was left in deep thought. The Grand Ancestor was so powerful that they had to wait for him die?

"What about the Gifted and the Deviants? Did they not intervene?" she asked.

"They tried. The Gifted had only one Negative Rank fighter who had once defeated the Great Ancestor. However, he too was eventually killed.

The Deviants could barely do anything. Their powers were still unclear and most didn't wish to use them in fear of being called cultists.

The world at that time was a terrible place for Gifted, Sorcerers and Deviants alike. Ordinary humans didn't have much to fear. The Great Ancestor only hunted the powered humans. Devastations would occur here and there but their lives were normal for the most part."

"Then what is the Order? What do they want?" Harriet asked.

Amos stood up and walked up to a painting with the figure of a man with blonde hair like his own.

"We've kept all the research the Great Ancestor used in a very secure place. This is something that only a few Grand Sorcerers know.

70 years ago, when we experienced our first attack by the Order, we found among the assailants a user of peculiar Sorcery. He was immensely powerful, able to handle multiple Sorcerers by himself.

That's when we suspected that there were remnants of the followers of the Grand Sorcerer."

Harriet kept her eyes on Amos.

"So they want the research left by the Grand Sorcerer?" she asked.

"Indeed," answered Akin.

"Why not destroy them then?"

"If it was that easy, we would have done so. The Great Ancestor made sure that his legacy could not be destroyed," answered Indrani as she put one leg on top of the other.

Harriet gazed at Indrani and bit her lips.

"Why are you telling me this?" she asked.

"Because, we have a shortage of trustworthy members. Soon we will be facing revolts from our inability to best the Order. Harriet," said Amos as he walked up to Harriet.

"You're the first candidate for my trust. I need you to pick up those who are also worthy of trust and help us keep the Mobius safe in the shadows. Can I trust you with this?

Harriet took in soft breaths as she looked at Amos. She trusted Amos as they were friends before anything else. Seeing his determined gaze, she relented.

"What do I have to do?" she asked.