Chapter 54: War with The East (Part 5)

Rina was nervous. She had never seen so many magus in a single room. Hell!!! She had not even met a single magus before this and now, she had 21 magus sitting in a room with her. She looked around and saw that all her teammates were equally nervous except Dev. Dev looked like he would die of fright at any moment. Rina felt jubiliation at his condition as according to all the magus present, it was due to his spell that the silver light came into existence. Dev's punishment was not decided yet but Rina knew that he would not get off easily. Rina turned to look at her seniors and saw that they all had grave expressions and a few of them were glaring at Dev. Dev was the person that everyone in this room, was angry at. Suddenly the box like thing in the center of the room flashed a green light. Rina was told that this meant that the meeting has started. Rina felt the atmosphere of the room turn serious. Everyone sat straighter in their seats.

The box crackled and an old voice came from it, " This meeting is starting now. I am Girdhar Surya, the Royal Magus of his majesty, Aryan Surya. I will be the head of this meeting. The rest of the higher ups will not be introduced as it will waste unnecessary time. We have gone through your report, Elder Singh, regarding the visions experienced by magus Sindh Pal, his claims of knowing the location of the ancient sites and your subsequent investigations which validated his claims. We are very concerned about this otherwordly being mentioned by magus Pal. We understand that you don't probe further as he had just recovered from the exposure to the silver light. We have also received your report about different visions experienced by all those effected. We will discuss about that later. But first, magus Pal, tell us all about the past you saw and this otherwordly being you saw."

Sindh Pal took a deep breath and narrated the lost history of the world regarding the evolution of magic and magi. Alexander did not show any rituals or runes used by the ancient magi as it would be the act of arming his enemy. He just gave him visions of the power of ancient magi and the magical animals roaming the world at that time. It was like telling a child for the first time about dinosaurs and showing him their fossils when he does not believe the storyteller. It would simply fascinated the child. This is what was happening in the meeting room right now.

Sindh Pal let out a sigh after he had finished telling about what he saw in the visions. He looked around and saw that everyone had amazed expressions. He looked towards the magical device placed at the center of the table. The voice of Girdhar Surya was heard again after a few seconds, " If I had not seen the validity of your claims myself, I would have taken you as a madman but here, we are listening to our long lost origins. To think that magic and magi had such rich past. But past is past, we can only learn from it. According to your visions, the magic was at least 10 times denser than now and the number of leylines were also more. What happened in the past that magic had degraded to this extent?"

Sindh let out a sigh of grief and said, " That otherwordly being destroyed nearly all the major leylines causing the magic to slowly dissipate over thousands of years. All the ancient magi were also killed by him. There are no descendents of ancient magi present in this world right now. The current magi are all the descendents of the magi which were born after the calamity. The destruction of leylines weakened the magic of the planet and the majority of magical plants and animals died and those that survived became a shadow of their former selves."

Girdhar asked, " How did he cause so much destruction? Did the ancient magi didn't try to stop him? Why did he destroy so much of our world? What enemity did he had with the ancient magi?"

Sindh, " He imprisoned all the powerful magi of the world so they could not stop him. He had come to conquer our world but when he failed to do do, he tried to destroy our world."

Girdhar, " How did he imprison all the powerful Magi?"

Sindh, " That fellow was a great planner. He searched for the most kind magi he could find at that time and created such conditions that his life seemed to be saved by that kind magi. Then, he remained with him for many years building an unbreakable bond with him. One day, he announced his decision to return back home. The kind magi was obviously sad at the departure of his friend. He, on the day before his leaving, gave the magi a magical artifact which was like an orb filled with golden symbol. It looked very similar to our national treasure that's why I had said that we were all in grave danger."

Girdhar said in a grave tone, " Continue!!"

Sindh, " He took out similar orb and told the magi that they would be communicate with him through this orb by placing his hand on it. He also told the magi that since he had been living in his tribe for so long, he had come to view them as his extended family. He told the magi that this orb had other functions also. This orb would be able to create separate land which no one could enter without his or his descendents permission. The amount of magical power placed in the orb at the first time would decide the size of the separate land. Moreover, the magic would be many times greater inside when compared to outside."

Girdhar said in a very serious tone, " What happened next?"

Sindh, " He left the next day and roamed the world for the next few years gathering followers while he remained in touch through the orb with the magi. After a few decades, when the magi was nearly at his deathbed, he send his followers to attack his tribe. The tribe was not able to resist the attack and nearly perished. The old magi in order to save his tribe sacrificed his magic, body and soul to fuel the orb. He wanted to give as much land as possible to his descendents. His descendents with bitterness and hatred in their hearts entered the separate land. All of this was a plan of that bastard, he had not send his full force but a part of his total forces."

Elder Singh, " What did he wanted from the tribe?"

Sindh, " He wanted to use them to launch an invasion on the world. As the magical density was greater inside, the magi who trained in there were more powerful and also advanced rapidly. He wanted to use their hatred to weaken the overall strength of this world. He had the most powerful follower of his form a tyrannical and cruel empire. After a few decades, he raised the thought of rebellion in the hearts of the decentors. Now, the rebellion only needed powerful figures to lead them. That crafty fellow used the orb to communicate with the descendents of the magi and presented himself as a descendent of their ancestor's friend. He riled them up to take revenge. The descendents of the magi were not easily convinced and asked him for a proof. The kind magi had given him a necklace to symbolize his friendship with the tribe. He used that to convince them. But, the descendents were not still ready to come out so he started to romanticise the outside world and ordered his followers to pull back their presence from the land and only fight with the rebellion. Over the years, the tribe slowly agreed to came out. They eventually came out and each of them was a powerful magus."

Padma, " So, did he restart the cruel treatment of common folk again?"

Sindh, "No, he waited for a few years and earned their friendship. Then, he staged his death at the hand of emperor's soldiers. The youngest son of the chief was his best friend according to everyone else but he was simply using him. The youngest son attacked the soldiers and killed them. The empire struck back but this time it was the empire's forces which got killed off. The tribe elders recognised the symbol of the attackers and told the tribe that these were the people who had attacked them decades ago and nearly ended their tribe. The tribe members were filled with anger and they decided to fight against the empire. That bastard informed the rebellion about the tribe and after some persuading, the tribe joined the rebellion. After a few years of preparation, the war against the empire started."

Prem, " Who won?"

Sindh, " The rebellion won. The tribe became the royalty. The war destroyed many magical forests and animals as they were hunted down to make various potions and poisons but the damage done was not unrecoverable but that crafty bastard was not done."

Girdhar, " He wanted to further weaken the magi as that would make his invasion easier. Am I correct?"

Sindh, " You are right, sir!!! He planted the idea of global conquest in the mind of the new king through his ministers in order to prevent any cruel empire to rise again. The new king drunk on victory launches the conquest. After years of war, a global empire was build. The king reestablished the small world for training the elite troops. But, over the years it became the place for rich and powerful. They called the small world as Elysium. When the gulf between the commoners and those sitting in the golden palaces became too large, he started another rebellion. This time it was a global conflict and all the magical races were involved. The damage was massive. It was that he played his last and most dangerous move. The orb was a lock and it's key was the orb that is in the tomb which is declared as death zone by the European countries."

Girdhar, " What did the orb locked?"

Sindh," The orb locked the entry and exit from the small world. Now, the orb was sustained by the energy it absorbed from the outside world. So, when it was locked, it started to absorb energy from the things inside the small world. All the Magi and anything living inside the small world died. The orb had another function also to release the energy it had absorbed in one go. He subjugated the whole magi race on the threat of unleashing the orb. Then, he turned his attention towards other magical races. All of them submitted except the dragons."

Jay, " Dragons?"

Sindh, " The dragons at that time were in capable of human thinking and had their own language. They were the most powerful magical race also. The war with the dragons further destroyed the already war ravaged world. That bastard unleashed the orb to kill the dragons but the most powerful dragon barely survived. He fought with that being and critically damaged the key but the key was capable of regenerating. I don't know how but it started to heal itself. All the remaining magicals came together to fight that being and the ancient dragon fatally wounded him at the cost of his life. That being nearing his death sacrificed his a part of his soul to gain a temporary boost in power and proceeded to hunted down nearly every magical left alive on the world and also destroyed the leylines in order to have a last laugh. Both the key and the orb were decided to be kept at great distance from each other. Since, the key was more important, it was buried inside the tomb with all the resources that the remaining magicals could bring while the orb was once again used to train up the next generation of the magicals. After they recovered from the risk of extinction, a group of people who were worried that a similar incident could happen whisked away the orb and hid it away in the ancient Himalayas. That's all I know."

Girdhar let out a shaky breath and said, " Our ancestors had found our national treasure in the Himalayas. But why did the silver light appear now?"

Dev spoke up in a frightened tone, " I can speak, Sir!!!"

Girdhar, " Speak, Child."

Dev, " I know why the light appeared, sir."

Elder Singh, " If you knew, why didn't you speak up before?"

Dev, " I didn't know the whole thing, Sir. I only know that the light was a signal for the next inheritor. This was the only information that I got from my visions. I did not know what was being inherited so I didn't speak as I was afraid that I would be further punished."

Shreya , " According to my visions, the signal was blocked from being send out by some sort of wards. But I think that after thousands of years, the wards weakened further, until someone's spell caused the wards to collapse and the signal was send out." Everyone turned to look towards Dev. Suddenly an old and regal voice came out of the device, " There is no need to blame the child. He did the right thing. No one knew about the tomb."

Elder Singh stood up and bowed towards the device and said, " Greetings, Old Emperor!!!!!" Hearing Elder Singh, the rest of the people also stood up and gave their greetings while bowing. The old emperor spoke up, " There is no need for formalities. Our priority is to retrieve that key and do our best to destroy that thing. We should also not forget that the forces of Alexander Fortis were also present when the signal was sent. They could also have access to the same information that we have so we should make haste. We should also contact the Chinese clans. This matter concerns the survival of our world, we need all the help that we can get. We will contact you with further instructions. Meeting dismissed!!!"

Alexander watched as the magus and magi returned to their tents. All the story planted by Alexander in Sindh's mind was fake. But Alexander himself didn't know how the two artifacts containing king's might came into this world. Alexander had promised the ancient dragon that he would not peer into his past and the promises made by higher dragons are binding so Alexander could not use his ability for this purpose. Alexander had now laid down the trap and it was up to the eastern magi to take the bait. Alexander now, just had to patiently wait.

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