5th Day of Second Seed, The Palace Museum
After some deliberation and consulting with Sepphira, Mulah and Satoshi had decided to tell Oda what they knew about the Power Tribunal. Oda was understandably shocked and delighted. He was delighted that his journalist intuition turned out to be correct, that there was a secretive group of people as he suspected. But he was shocked because the scale of this group and its deeds were beyond what he could have imagined initially.
Now that Oda was more certain in his speculation, and with the help of Mulah and Sepphira, he practically became a fish that just returned to water. He began working with a crazed devotion, coordinating his vast network of contributors, checking records, verifying witnesses and evidence of past incidents.
When Sepphira and Mulah both agreed to help with getting him access to more records, Oda profusely thanked them and immediately gave prior agreement to whatever conditions Mulah and Sepphira would set.
Sepphira and Mulah only requested that Oda would keep everything under wrap for the time being, for obvious reasons. Oda naturally understood this and readily agreed. Thus the three of them were in quite a good mood.
Sepphira and Mulah were delighted that they got to work together with someone with such a vast information network that acted independently from governments and political influences. Oda was more than thrilled because he now got two valuable sources from two important spheres of influence.
Only Satoshi was left alone in the shadow, a gloomy cloud hanging over his face.
After he heard what Mulah said, Satoshi was quick to make up his mind. His heart was telling him that he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he let Xiahn unknowingly get into those horrible things without doing anything about it. Thus if it absolutely must be done then Satoshi would get it done, he would go to Daojia Institute.
Another problem arose after Satoshi made his decision, the trials were already around the corner and Satoshi only had a little time left for preparation. The Academia Scholastic Trials would be held on the last week of Second Seed, which meant Satoshi only got 2 weeks to cram everything he needed to learn before the actual trials.
It was quickly decided that Satoshi would stay at the Palace Museum until the date of the trial so he could learn directly from Sepphira. Mulah had to return to Xinjia-kor and finalize his work on the Verdant Steel’s processing conduit alteration, which wouldn't be possible to do via correspondence like he had done all this time. Oda would stay in Lah’s Mansion while in Istindi and would regularly commute to the Palace Museum and other places to work on his investigations.
Today was the first day of Satoshi’s ‘'cram-school'' at the Palace Museum and Sepphira had brought two teachers and some elders to introduce Satoshi. She had asked for their help in preparing Satoshi for the trial. Presumably because of Sepphira’s personal influence and after some monetary reward promised by Mulah, they agreed to help.
“So you are the lucky Aspirant that caught teacher Sepphira’s attention, you don’t look half bad ain't you kid?” A burly man with a thick full beard smacked Satoshi repeatedly on the shoulder.
It hurt like hell but he was kinda scared of this bear-like man so he could only grimace in pain.
“But aren’t you a little bit old to be only preparing for the trials now? You look like thirty-something to me…” Another man with pale complexion and lanky build said while closely observing Satoshi. His shoulders and back were badly hunched.
If Satoshi was hurt physically by that other man, what the pale man said just now gave him another kind of pain. It was emotional damage, that was simply rude.
“This is Teacher Tellrog, he specializes in combat magic and battle formations. This one is Teacher Unsui, he specializes in refinement and fabrication.” Sepphira introduced both men to Satoshi respectively.
She continued, “You should understand by that, both these gentlemen are more than capable of putting you in a world of pain in case you don't show the proper kind of determination.”
“But we know you wouldn't do that, would you?” She ended her introduction with a sinister smile and laugh that made Satoshi giddy. This woman is obviously scarier than both these men put together!
After the short introduction Sepphira explained to Satoshi and everyone present how the preparation would be made. Sepphira would be responsible for the first two days in assessing Satoshi’s general knowledge about the subjects, and cramming the most critical fundamentals that he absolutely needed to understand. After that, she would come up with a daily schedule for the following days.
One of the teachers would be responsible for a specific subject of the day, if none of the teachers were available, then an elder would supervise. By the end of each day Sepphira would test and see what he had learned on that day and the days before.
Teacher Tellrog generously offered Satoshi to borrow his rejuvenation talisman so he could lessen the burden in his body. Teacher Unsui also suspiciously insisted Satoshi take some of his concoctions that he refined from accelerant liquid that were typically used in magical constructs.
It was one-sidedly decided that Satoshi would have in total four hours a day to eat, sleep, shit, and that would be it. The rest of the hours would go for study. It hadn't even begun but Satoshi already felt miserable.
Sepphira took Satoshi back to her study to begin the assessment, they sat facing each other on the low sofas. Satoshi was quite nervous at this point, now that he was here for the specific purpose of learning he felt Sepphira looked different than before. Almost like she exuded an aura of authority of some sort.
“Before we start, let me say that I’m personally glad that you decided to go after all.” She smiled at Satoshi.
“I understand that you have your own misgivings, I hope that after all of this you will find that some of them are not as bad as you thought. Or if they indeed turned out the way you thought, I hope you would be able to make peace with it.” Sheppira continued genuinely.
Satoshi chose not to respond and only gave a faint smile. He personally hoped that too, but he wouldn't set his hope too high.
“Now, I am aware that you have your own fair share of reading and study, but since some things that I am going to teach you are very critical for the trials I’m not going to assume what you already know and begin with the most basic.” Sepphira started off the study.
The first topic was about the basic understanding of magic. Magic as it was loosely referred to, was an umbrella term that refers to every and any kind of application of understanding of the fundamental laws to manipulate the world around us. Either via the help of simple seals and chants, to the most complex utilization of formations and constructs.”
“I heard from Mulah that you developed your own water-light imprint technique. That is considered magic too.” Sepphira said.
“It does? But it is so simple, anyone would have been able to do it with a little bit of training.” Satoshi asked for confirmation.
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“True, but it is some form of application of understanding to manipulate the world around us, thus, it is technically magic regardless how simple it may seem.” Sepphira explained.
“The reason why most people would be able to do it too was due to an entirely different reason. You must have noticed that most people, even though they have never received extensive academia training, are able to demonstrate some kinds of manipulation such as water-light technique. What do you think is the reason for that?” Sepphira asked.
Satoshi was startled, now that Sepphira mentioned it he noticed that it was indeed true. Most people would be able to perform such kind of simple techniques merely by expanding some mental power and stamina.
“Could it be because learning magic is actually very easy?” Satoshi asked.
“That’s right, but not entirely right. Let me explain.” Sepphira began to explain.
The reason why it was possible for most people to perform some kind of simple magic technique had to do with the state of fundamental laws that governed the world. In their current world, it can be said that the fundamental laws had loosened their restrictions, making it much easier for us to directly apply our understanding and comprehension to manipulate the world around us.
It wasn’t always like this though. In previous eras, our predecessor had to deal with a lot stricter restrictions by the fundamental laws, it required a whole lot more comprehension to manipulate the world around them. But conversely, since it was much more difficult to even navigate their daily lives back then, they became much more advanced in their understanding and comprehension.
Our ancestors came up with ingenious ways to get around those stricter restrictions by the fundamental law and as their understanding deepened, the stuff that they invented became more and more complex and powerful. Any kind of this stuff that managed to survive the collapses thus became a source of infinite wisdom and was highly sought by various powers!
“Take our communication terminals for example,” Sepphira said, “It is a very crude way we come up with to replicate what we found from multiple relics that survived the collapse. So far we only managed to figure out how to use it to receive and send simple text or sound messages and pictures over a limited range of airwaves.”
“But from what we can gather from those relics, the same kind of device should be able to facilitate real time communication even across continents. Their mastery over electrical frequency, material refinement, construct making, and formation were way beyond what we understand today, and they managed to put all of that into a device no bigger than the size of our palm!”
Sepphira eyes burned with magnificent fervor as she explained all of this.
Satoshi unconsciously touched his communication terminal. Even though he had heard about this before, the stuff that these past civilizations came up with always amazed him.
“That’s just one thing, if you consider the other things that our predecessors managed to come up with during their time, you would notice that our current civilizations wouldn't be possible without those relics and artifacts.” Sepphira said.
“What happened to them?” Satoshi asked, after all it didn't make sense how such advanced civilizations were just up and gone.
Sepphira pondered for a bit and said.”...We are not entirely sure yet, but it has a lot to do with the collapses between the eras.”
Sepphira began to explain that so far people generally agreed on the existence of four separate eras. The First Era was naturally the oldest, with the least amount of relics left behind. If it weren't for existing records from the Second Era, we wouldn't even notice their distinct existence. It could be said as the dawn of humanity as our ancestors began to develop complex understanding and comprehension to shape the world around them.
The Second Era came after that and lasted for 3.400-4.000 years, this era could be considered the peak of enlightenment for humanity. Whether it be about scientific advancement, public health, economy, human rights, art, entertainment, agriculture, manufacturing and fabrication technology, everything was practically available for everyone to grasp.
The end of the Second Era was something that we still yet to discover, and with its end came the most obscure and possibly the longest era: the Third Era. It was said to be the most chaotic and ungoverned era of all. More than half of its timeline lost forever to history due to war and the many collapses.
It was only after the dawn of the Imperial Family that the world was consolidated and a more proper record of history was possible to be preserved. This period was later on referred to as the Brighter Third Era in comparison to its darker contemporary, and it lasted somewhere between 2.000-3.000 years.
Sadly during the whole duration, it still didn't manage to catch up to the achievement of its predecessor.
Then with the Last Collapse of Third Era, the Imperial Family domination was finally relinquished and the Fourth Era began. With the dawn of Fourth Era also came the dawn of multiple other races and sentient beings, namely the mythical deities, magical beasts, the elven, dwarves, and giants races, and several living relics or universal treasures.
“And this era came with its own blessing, namely the loosened restrictions of fundamental laws of the universe, which enabled us to do…this.” Sepphira said as her left hand made a grasping movement and a light from an illumination crystal flew into his hand. It lingered and changed into different shapes and colors before it disappeared as Sepphira closed her hand.
“We then decided on calling it “magic”, after we learned that was how they used to call it in the Second Era.” Sepphira ended her explanation.
Satoshi was just listening this whole time but when Sepphira was done he almost felt out of breath. He finally understood why magic became very common in this era.
It can be said that it was much easier to find someone that could perform magic rather than one that couldn’t. Turns out, it was the world itself that changed, making all of these possible.
“Any question to this point?” Sepphira asked, wanting to make sure that Satoshi got all of that clearly.
Satoshi pondered as he thought about the myriad of questions that he had.
“What caused the Great Collapse and its subsequent collapses? Why did it suddenly stop at the beginning of the Fourth Era?”
“How did the mythical deities and the other races come to be?”
“ Why are there so many different kinds of magic? Does that mean there are the same amount of laws that govern our world?”
“If the world itself has changed that makes it easier to manipulate it, why don’t more people become proficient in magic?”
“Okay you need to slow down, we will naturally try to cram and answer all those questions, but we are going to take it one step at a time.” Sepphira said while smiling, amused by Satoshi’s barrage of questions.
She pondered a bit and then said, “Although the academia community is technically still in debate over it, the majority believed that the Great Collapse was caused because our world itself was trying to shed the things that threaten its very survival.”
“I’m sure you must be familiar with the theory that states that the world itself is like a living being, when it gets sick it will try to heal itself, something like that.”
“Why did it suddenly stop tho?” Satoshi pursued.
Sepphira looked troubled by this question and took a longer time to answer it. After some time she finally began to speak.
“I doubt this will show up in the trial, but if you want to know… When the world banded together in the uprising against the Imperial Family, something else that would later get obscured by history also happened.”
“What was it?” Satoshi impatiently asked, he never heard about anything like this whatsoever.
“Take this with a grain of salt, because after all, it still has not been fully authenticated, but it had something to do with the conception of the Power Tribunal.”
Satoshi was shocked to suddenly hear the Power Tribunal being mentioned. Wasn’t this something that happened 6.000 years ago? They had been around for that long?
“It began with the appearance of a supreme expert that came out of nowhere. When the world was still trying to consolidate itself after the fall of the Imperial Family, and learn our way with the arts, suddenly came someone with the kind of power that people had never seen before.”
“Due to what this supreme expert did, a collapse that was supposed to happen in the year 2.000 was averted.”
“And then another one and another one, each every a thousand years, this supreme expert would appear and stop the collapse.”
“This expert lived for that long?!” Satoshi was very surprised he knew that even the elves and giants wouldn't be able to live for that long.
Sepphira shook her head, “Everytime it would be a different incarnation. After several instances, people were able to gather that this expert had gone through different reincarnations each time and came back to avert the collapses.”
“In the year of 5.000 the supreme expert created a group of elites and began teaching and training them. They were impartial at first and only concerned themselves with the pursuit of knowledge and truth, but over time, this group of elites became what would later be known as the Power Tribunal.”
Satoshi was flabbergasted when he heard about this. He considered himself to be quite knowledgeable about history, but he had never once even heard about this. Obviously, these were the kind of stuff that were only allowed to be known only by the elites of society.
“Does this group have a name? Or the supreme expert?” Satoshi asked, he planned to read more on the subject later.
Sepphira answered him, “The group was called Covenant of Truth, while she was simply referred to as the Old Lady.”
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