One question, two visions.

'What would happen if we were to alter the Verdant Steel processing conduit?'

Considering the importance of the processing conduit to the whole operation, Mulah seeked Sepphira's help with the Evil-eye to minimize the risk of his effort moving forward. Instead, he was greeted with shocking premonitions.

The second one was what he saw if he were to fail.

'A planet of brown and gray shades. The atmosphere was long gone so the endless empty space outside was in plain view. Harsh wind and sandstorms ravaged the entire planet, since there was no atmosphere protecting the planet, it was battered with relentless radioactive winds sent by the dying star. There were no signs of life to be seen.'

'This could no longer be considered a planet. The second celestial body that had been orbiting the star was now just a huge chunk of space rock, with a major part of it missing, floating endlessly to further reaches of space.'

'This was a dead planet.'

Although this vision was really shocking, and obviously nothing would be comparably grimmer than the death of the planet, it was the first vision, of what would happen if he were to succeed, that rocked him to the core.

'It was a world of war and destruction.'

'The whole world was locked in its axis, bound in its spot while time and space continuously moved around it. It was slowly being torn apart. Lights of temporal time locks descended from the sky, pierced the planet, and came out the other side. There were hundreds of these columns of light and each one was enormous in proportions.'

'Inside each of them were multitudes of living beings: humans, elves, dwarves, giants, mythical beasts, deities, every manner and kinds of living creatures; locked in space and time. Their faces were a color of desperation and unwillingness.'

'Outside the region of these temporal time locks, waves of various kinds of warriors came in a concentric ring. Their faces were desperate and terrified, but they were still furious and unwilling. They were ready to engage in the ultimate battle, the last one, to face the one enemy they all dreaded.'

'In the center of this concentric ring of warriors stood a mountain and from this mountain came the biggest column of light of temporal lock. This was the power source of all the other temporal locks.'

'In front of this main temporal lock stood a man that was the sole enemy of all the warriors. He stood on top of the mountain by himself, in his left hand a giant flag with a single word written on it: Power.'

'The man on top of the mountain looked down at the waves of warriors, written in his eyes were an insurmountable will of slaughter and annihilation.'

'This man was Satoshi.'

Mulah came back from his recollection of what he had seen in his visions this afternoon. He opened his eyes and looked at Satoshi, he saw the face of the man on the mountain.

Mulah's heart was in turmoil. Should he answer, or should he not answer Satoshi's question?

"It is the Power Tribunal"

A clear voice of a woman suddenly sounded startling both Mulah and Satoshi. They turned and saw a beautiful woman walking toward them, it was Sepphira.

"The Power we were talking about is the Power Tribunal." She clarified as she sat down within the pavilion.

Mulah was troubled as he tried to stop Sepphira,"Sepphira...is this...appropriate?"

"It's fine. Since I gained the Evil-eye I also gained a deeper understanding to discern the heart of people even if I have just met them. It is fine for Satoshi to learn about the Power Tribunal." Sepphira explained.

Mulah still looked a little bit worried, but he trusted Sepphira a lot, and since Sepphira herself was convinced he thought it should be fine.

"Satoshi, what you are about to hear shouldn't be spread unless absolutely necessary. In fact, you should only talk about this when there's the three of us. Understood?"

He saw how serious Mulah and Sepphira acted, so Satoshi naturally understood the gravity of the situation. Satoshi nodded and Sepphira began telling Satoshi about the Power Tribunal.

The Power Tribunal was a secretive group of people that were unsanctioned by any kind of powers within the United Front. The United Front's cause and purpose were clear and they conducted their effort to advance the life of all beings, ensure harmony and equality, to keep peace and prevent war, and to be impartial and respect the different ways of life of any group of people.

Yet they still couldn't tolerate the Power Tribunal.

It wasn't clear when and where the Power Tribunal came into existence, or what was its ultimate purpose, but it had put the whole world into High Alert since it became known. All of its known members were of Master and Grand Master ranks, and they were constantly gathering forces secretively over their vast network that spanned across continents.

They had no bases, no public presences, they never even responded to any kind of request from the world to claim responsibility for the destruction that they have caused left and right. So far the world was only aware of their modus operandi: they rarely hit, but when they did, they hit fast, unexpectedly, and viciously!

They left no chance whatsoever for anyone to react, and when the world realized what was done they'd be already long gone.

Another thing the world learned was, whenever the Power Tribunal made a move, it was to get more power. Green Dragon Crescent Blade, Metal God Flying Chariot, the Red Crown, they had made moves on each of these, leaving the authorities of Asira stymied.

They even broke into Green Dragon White mountain and kidnapped a mythical deity!

The Champa Ancient City of Sulus,

Dai's Imperial Regalias, Raima Mandala, and Heavenly Pegasi Tomb,

Eyriin's Trunemetyn Oak of Gawl, the Old World Tunnel of Celestial Aspects,

Kmetafar's Limestone Cemeteries and Sun-god Burials,

Andea's Aurum Raft, Naxga Lines, and Qmbaia Troves;

these all have been ransacked, stolen, or destroyed by the Power Tribunal!

And those were just some of the high-profile cases that happened recently. The list of their other offenses were much much much longer than that.

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

In short, the Power Tribunal had been in a relentless effort to gather objects of power and they seemed to have no qualms about the loss of life and destruction that they caused in the process. Thus, it was natural that the United Front and various other alliances banded together in an effort to eradicate them.

Unfortunately so far, none of these efforts had even come close to fruition.

"They even targeted Xinjia-kor's Verdant Steel processing method at one point. Thankfully, Sepphira gained a premonition about this and notified us." Mulah added to the story.

"I thought you guys got acquainted in Asira?" Satoshi asked.

Sepphira responded, "We indeed did get acquainted in Asira. Mulah was tasked to meet me in Asira, and together we moved in secret to stop the premonition from happening."

"Whoa, I thought the prophecy of the Evil-eye is absolute." Satoshi asked.

"It is absolute in a sense that whatever the Evil-eye sees, it will definitely happen, whether in this reality or the other various branches of reality. That's why if there's a reality that we must absolutely avoid at all cost, by analyzing the various nodes where realities branched from, we could follow the more desirable outcomes. Albeit very very very difficult." Sepphira explained.

Satoshi somehow understood what Sepphira meant, but he wasn't really sure he fully understood. He wasn't even sure if he would fully understand it even if he dedicated some time to study it. The concept of multiple alternate realities that exist at the same time while moving parallel against each other sounded easily understandable at surface level, but was actually very complex to understand.

Satoshi decided to put this on the back of his head and instead asked,"So..if they are such a villain and have caused countless harm, why is their existence not a common knowledge?"

Sepphira looked at Mulah and let him explain, "It's because, secretly, the governments believed there is value in the Power Tribunal's existence."

Satoshi was shocked by Mulah's answer. He had his suspicions, but to think that the various governments would really be like that painted a grim picture for Satoshi.

"Firstly, they are unwilling to reveal to the general public that there is a secretive group outside of government control that is so elusive none of them can't do anything about it. They have this childish fear of being seen as incompetent." Mulah proceeded, a trace of contempt could be heard in his voice.

"Secondly, they are afraid that if the Power Tribunal's existence becomes more well known, it will soon come to the point that they are forced to abandon their clause of secrecy and begin operating and recruiting in the open. The current state of the world as it is, the governments are afraid that an anarchy group like the Power Tribunal will be able to garner a huge amount of sympathizers."

"Thirdly, the United Front itself is not really a front, they are secretly competing against each other and hoping the Power Tribunal would attack their rivals next. I wouldn't be surprised if one of them already did attack a fellow member while making it seem it was done by Power Tribunal."

"Lastly, they secretly coveted the Power Tribunal." Mulah ended his explanation.

Satoshi understood this point well. To have control over a group of elites with such power and elusiveness would be a very tempting prospect for any kind of authority. After all, nothing was more important to them than maintaining and advancing the status quo.

Mulah and Sepphira ended their explanation about the Power Tribunal and the three of them sat in silence. It was a lot to take in so they allowed Satoshi some time to digest it.

After a while, Satoshi broke his silence,"So, do you think Kirgio is from the Power Tribunal?" he asked Sepphira.

"Not sure, and we may never get the answer. He had left the palace museum." Sepphira answered.

This surprised Satoshi and Mulah greatly, for Kirgio to suddenly leave as soon as he was suspected to be part of the Power Tribunal seemed too much to be considered as coincidence.

"He left? He left-left??" Mulah asked

"He left-left. We searched but couldn't find any of his belongings. The inquiries he posted were gone, he even took the bed sheets and desk mats in his dorm room. He obviously doesn't want to leave any trace of his aura that can be used to trace him." answered Sepphira.

"Wow…it wouldn't be a mere coincidence would it.." Mulah mused.

"Did you come to tell us about this?" Satoshi asked Sepphira.

Sepphira looked at Satoshi and put on a sweet smile, "No. I came to look into your future."

—

Mulah and Sepphira walked side by side in Lah Mansion. She was done with what she came to do and was going to leave. Mulah was just walking her to where she parked her personal shuttle.

In Sepphira's hand there was a letter written by Xiahn for Satoshi.

Sepphira did indeed looked into Satoshi's future like she did with Mulah, but when she was done she said nothing. Instead, she asked Satoshi if he had with him something that used to belong to people close in his life, anything that might have their aura.

Satoshi didn't have such things with him because he was basically just spending the new year in Mulah's mansion. Luckily, he remembered Xiahn's letter that he just received.

Sepphira asked Satoshi if she could take the letter with her for a while, while promising that she would surely return it. Satoshi readily agreed and after that Sepphira said her goodbyes.

Mulah kept glancing back and forth at Xiahn's letter and Sepphira, he was wondering what she needed the letter for. He tried to kept it to himself but he couldn't, "What do you need the letter for?" he finally asked.

Sepphira knew that Mulah had been trying to curb his curiosity, so instead of answering she teased.

"Hm? What are you curious about? What are you going to give me to answer that question?"

Mulah was startled by her answer, he was actually quite worried about her intention.

"Come on, stop joking around and tell me. Are you...you are not going to trace the aura and take them hostage...right? Are you?"

Sepphira exploded with laughter, so Mulah was just worried about Xiahn and the rest of Satoshi's family after all. "Of course not, what do you take me for you punk, a villain?!"

Mulah was a little bit relieved by her answer but he was still curious, "So what do you need the letter for?"

"I'm going to look into Satoshi's future through other people close to him in his life. I tried it with you this afternoon, but the result was the vision that we both saw and nothing else."

Mulah recalled the terrifying vision and his heart lurched. In the end, none of them told Satoshi about what they saw, but it really weighed on their minds. They just decided to keep the secret for now.

"What did you see when you looked at Satoshi?" Mulah asked.

Sepphira stopped walking and stared hard infront of her, her brows were creased as if she was confused about something.

"Nothing," she said.

"Nothing?" Mulah was well aware of the Evil-eye's power so he knew to see nothing out of someone shouldn't be possible.

"Nothing. There was nothing whatsoever about the future, just unknown floating darkness."

"...and then?"

"I looked into the past and saw this life he'd been living, his work, his family, the things you have told me, and nothing else."

"What? Then...what about before that? Or the other ones.."

"Nothing. There was no past life or reincarnations. There are no other ones in other realities. Just this one, in this reality." Sepphira turned to look at Mulah, her face grave and was greatly unsure.

Mulah's mind went to chaos, he didn't know what to think, what to do, what to say.

"Then…what should we do?" He finally asked.

Sepphira pondered for a bit and answered.

"For the time being, there is nothing we could do. Just wait and see until we get more of the bigger picture. But I do need to remind you that, between those two visions, one is obviously grimmer than the other. So even though what we saw was terrifying, and you are genuinely concerned about Satoshi, you must make the alteration successful. Otherwise…you know what will happen."

—

Satoshi was lying down on his bed in his one bedroom apartment as he read a book. It was titled "Covenant of Truth: a look into a failed academic utopia".

Since he learned about the Power Tribunal from Mulah and Sepphira two weeks ago, he had been reading books about other secretive groups and organizations like the Power Tribunal. This so-called Covenant of Truth was one of such groups.

He was just a couple pages in and was still reading the author's note at the beginning of the book. Suddenly he felt a faint tremor rocked his bed, and it lasted for a while.

'Another one?' Satoshi thought to himself.

Satoshi waited to see whether the tremor would subside or he would need to evacuate. It lasted for almost ten seconds before it subsided.

'That was quite long. How many times was that? And it seems to get longer and longer...'

Satoshi put down the book he was reading and took out his communication terminal. The communication terminal produced a light screen at a push of a button, and on the light screen were hologram displays.

"Why are there so many earth-quake lately?" Satoshi asked the communication terminal and after a second it displayed many results such as news articles and academic papers.

Satoshi continued navigating the hologram display via the buttons on his communication terminal and opened one of the news articles. It contained information about the series of earthquakes that had been happening lately.

It also included some snippets of interviewed academia figures. As Satoshi and practically everyone had suspected, it had something to do with the volcano eruption that was expected to happen soon.

But what drew the public attention wasn't the regular eruption of the volcano, but whether the gathering for the provinces of Terra-Esterna would still be held.

The gathering for the provinces of Terra-Esterna Supercontinent was an event that was held once every five years. During the event, representatives of every authoritative figure from each province would gather and discuss the state of the Supercontinent in general. They would also discuss how to better maintain peace, extend collaborations, and how to tackle shared difficulties.

In short, it was a gathering that would shape the relations among the provinces and their future together, for at least the next five years. This year, they were planning on signing a Joint Economic Accord.

This Joint Economic Accord was a little bit special, because it will be signed between all the provinces Terra-Esterna and several other organizations from other continents. Every province from Terra-Esterna would be sending their representatives. From Dai, on the furthest north, to indigenous group of people from Anangu on the furthest South.

There was even talk that the Dwarf nations would be sending representatives.

From other continents would be Asira, Xinjia-kor, and the relatively newly established kingdom: Nevas Kingdom. The inclusion of Nevas Kingdom caused a bit of a roar when it was announced, after all, the kingdom was still considered a rogue kingdom by the majority of the United Front.

Since so many important figures from many places would be gathering in Istindi, the impending volcano eruption would of course cause a little bit of concern.

Mulah had returned to Xinjia-kor just a few days after their talk about the Power Tribunal. But due to his unique circumstances as both a person of Istindi and important figure in the Imperial Descendants Hall of Research in Xinjia-kor, he soon was scheduled to return back to Istindi for the gathering.

Just as Satoshi was thinking about Mulah, his communication terminal vibrated and issued a notification sound. A name was displayed on the hologram display "MULAH", it was a voice message from Mulah.

[BEEP! Playing message. BEEP!]

[Hey, how are you doing? I'm doing good here, thanks to you.]

[So as I told you before, I'm going to return to Istindi very soon for the gathering, and since I'm going to be traveling with the other delegates we will head straight for Istindi. You should stay in the mansion while we are there. I'll introduce some of my colleagues, they are all curious about you.]

[The suggestion you made is making quite a progress, my boss is absolutely thrilled. He keeps asking me if there's anything I would like him to do hahaha… We did indeed have to make some adjustments but those are minor matters.]

[Anyway, Sepphira asked me to ask you if it's okay for her to visit you, and said something she needed to tell you about. So, what should I say to her?]

[BEEP! End of message. BEEP!]

Satoshi chuckled when he heard Mulah's voice play back on his communication terminal. He understood Mulah's true intention of introducing his colleagues, that was his way of looking after Satoshi.

Satoshi operated his communication terminal to record a reply to send to Mulah.

[ BEEP! Recording message. BEEP! ]

"Alright, I'll stay at your place while you're here. Make sure you don't forget to bring me some chickens from Hawker Tan like last time."

"And please tell Sepphira it's okay if she wants to visit, just say when so I can prepare."

[ BEEP! Recording message over. BEEP! ]

Satoshi hit send on his communication terminal and almost in an instant a message sent notification popped up, at the same time Satoshi heard a knock on his door.