Wu stood up and instinctively went to get the door when Lera reached over and tugged lightly on his sleeves. Wu has little idea of who that is, but the three others all felt the presence of the one who knocked through the Wave. Of the three, Ver is the one that's the most sensitive thanks to the Kraken's tendril. Fatera cracked her neck, and she stayed still before nodding towards Ver who rose up from her seat. Lera waved her hand and covered up the blackboard with a fake-looking projection Cast as Ver walked up to the door, overtaking Wu. There was only a single individual standing outside of their door, and when Ver opened it up, it was a young slim man with a white band wrapped around his eyes standing there. "Nice eyepatch." He said, smiling at Ver. Ver took a closer glance at him, noticing his dark green hair, pale skin, short nose, and a mole under the corner of his mouth. He is skinny and short, though his body wobbled side to side with an interesting springiness. "I could say the same." Ver replied, "What do you want?" "Your help." He replied, "My name is Augen Zuku, and I have come here, as I am fated to do." "Are you trying to sell us something?" Lera's voice came through the door, and she looked over to see the young man that's even shorter than her. "A prospect of the future, perhaps." Augen replied with a smile, "I mean no harm, and I just wish to talk and offer a proposition." "Aren't you a strange little one?" Fatera said, her voice piercing through the air as Ver slightly turned to watch her, "Is he followed?" Ver placed a hand on the doorframe, subtly extending the Kraken's tendril into the air. After a little while of feeling nothing but ambiance, she shook her head and let Augen in. "Nice to meet you all, at last." Augen smiled, his eyes seemingly lingering over Fatera extra long before turning to face each and every one of them, "Ver Fulgen Vaughan, Lera Huten, Fatera, Wu Hui. My name is Augen Zuku, and I am the One that Saw." Wu raised his eyebrows with interest as the young man sat on the carpet opposite the four. "How do you know our names?" Lera asked, hints of tension in her voice as she reached towards the Book of Casts besides her. "As much as I'd like to keep the dramatic tension going, I know I won't obtain your help without putting all my cards on the table." Augen said, slowly untying the white headband and laying it out on the ground in front of him, revealing his scarred eyes underneath. Lera covered her mouth the moment she saw the extent of damage it had sustained, and he must have suffered an indescribable amount of pain due to this injury. His eyelids were completely and utterly burnt together with massive patches of scar tissue spanning over where the eyeballs are supposed to be and his eyebrows nowhere to be found. "I apologize, Lera." Augen lowered his head humbly, "I do not wish to startle you." "No...I am sorry." Lera nodded. "What happened?" Ver asked. "I activated a forbidden Cast." Augen replied straight away, "One that Wu should be rather familiar with." Then, he turned and looked towards an empty corner in the room. "What is the Academy's policy on forbidden Casts?" Wu asked, his voice giving Augen a chuckle as he slowly moved his head to face Wu. With the other three, Augen was able to detect their presence, emotions, and expressions through the Wave, but with Wu, all he had was a best guess. And from where the sound is coming from, Augen knew the guess was incorrect. "Non-interference." Augen said, pointing to his eyes, "So long as one is willing to accept the consequences, no Casts are forbidden here, as long as others aren't affected." "And what did you do?" Wu asked, his fingers rubbing against his chin, "The only forbidden Casts I am familiar with took everything from the man that Casted it." "Well, so long as you are skilled enough, you are able to leverage its price and its power." Augen said, placing both hands on the coffee table. "So..." Wu said, drawing the attention of the three girls in the room, "You looked into the future, didn't you?" "And I paid the price with my eyes." Augen said, sighing, "But I did see it. And no price is too great for the exchange of knowledge. If you help me out here, I could tell you what you..." "Nope, not interested," Wu said, standing up as Augen's jaws dropped and his head cocked backward by the sharpness of his response. "But you will get so much-" "The remnant tried to shake me with prospects of the future he saw, and he foretold a grand fantasy of death, fire, magic, and wars." Wu said, his hands gesturing out as if he had become a host of a story show, "And here you are, offering me the same precious information about what is to come. You think I am really going to buy that?" "You don't want to know?!" "Believe it or not, I don't." Wu said, throwing his hands in the air, "My world is governed by science, and we still have no idea how time actually works. Why should I try to believe in anything about the future that was said here, by you? Plus...You only lost your eyes, but the Remnant lost absolutely everything. That meant only one thing, from the way time-based forbidden Casts work." "It meant you only looked through time and got the bare minimum of information to keep us interested, like our backstories, our names, and perhaps...our goals which stemmed from our pasts? But I bet you couldn't predict what's going on, like right now, correct? If you could, our positions would have been reversed." Wu said, sitting back down, "So...what is it really that you want OUR help?" "Nicely done~" Lera said, patting Wu on the shoulder proudly. "Truly incredible." Augen said, recovering from his stunned state, "No wonder you are the Savior here." "Did you see that too?" Wu asked, and Augen nodded. "That was the only element of future that I know for sure is going to happen. Like you said, I also do not believe fully what I see, or rather, I hope some of the events will not come to pass... I apologize for the rocky start, but I do intend to seek your help." Augen said, standing up from the cross-legged sitting as he spun around and headed to the blackboard, "I am planning a heist against the Union. Or rather...against the PORA. At this stage, they are one and the same." With his finger, he ran across the surface of the blackboard, dismissing Lera's Cast before the layers of clues and information that Lera wrote down were revealed. "I am sure you know this, but the PORA, lead locally by John King, had already taken near full control of the Union, which the majority of the Boarded, or the top fifty strongest Wave users in the Academy, is a member of." Augen said, drawing circles around both the PORA and the Union, "The Boarded is merely a title, but the Union is where those people operate out of, kind of like a club room. The Union library houses countless books of ancient and forbidden knowledge not accessible anywhere else in the world. And among those books are a single one that I have been looking for." "That book is deemed as the bible of the PORA, the one that started its current plans." Augen said, his expressions stretching long and darkening, "Wu, I don't know how time works either. But if the PORA gets off the ground fully...The world will be in turmoil, one way or another, and it is a future I do not wish to live in." "And why do you think a heist will help?" Wu asked, "Not that fighting against PORA is a bad thing, but how would this help?" "The bible of the PORA is called the Revolutionary Manuscript." Augen said, "It contains information about the countless incredible defensive Casts left behind in all the major countries of the world after the end of the War of the Third Millennium, and those spanning Casts were put in place to prevent another invasion of the devil's dimension. The Manuscript detailed the condition of activation for all of those Casts individually. If that book is destroyed, then the PORA will never be able to control the world through those ancient Casts!" If the goal of the PORA is that of complete control, then there are truly no easier ways to do it. If they could take control of the defensive infrastructure that was deemed powerful enough to fight back against the devils, then there will be no more resistance from around the world. "I have never heard anything about that." Lera said, "Nobody within the Pinnacle Academy even mentioned a hint about it!" "Neither have I heard anything remotely close in the Ethereal Realm." Ver added, "If they have access to such a power item, why have they not used it before?" "Because of the condition of activation." Augen explained, pointing to a quick doodle of the world map of Olympus prime, "The activation for each and every one of the Casts are threefold. One: the detection of extra-dimensional Wave within the region. Two: the activation Cast from the country's King's, or whomever the keyholder is. Three: the encrypted Cast from any member of the Ten Heavenly Pillars. Beyond that, there needs to be ample supply of the Wave to power those Casts." "So that leaves behind their main goals for the PORA then." Wu said, "Figuring out how to get some of that...extra-dimensional Wave, take political control of the various countries, and...influence the Ten Heavenly Pillars? Aren't they essentially the living gods of this world? How could they be..." "There had been rumours that there is a splinter within the Ten Heavenly Pillars, due to PORA." Augen said, "It is likely that the third objective had already been completed... But this is where we can come in. Without the manuscripts, the PORA will have no idea of the exact locations of the Casts regardless." "So...will you help me?" Augen turned towards the group, "How does the Heist of the Fourth Millenia sound to you?"