"You have got a lot of explaining to do." Wu said, sitting down with a heavy stomp as Fatera, Ver, and Lera stood around in a triangle, acting as sentinels surrounding Augen. In between all of them sat the Revolutionary Manuscript, a wide book with a cover painted fully red with the map of the Olympus Prime printed over it.

"I...suppose so." Augen said, lowering his head in defeat. Their objective of obtaining the Revolutionary Manuscript had been completed, and in hindsight, all of them expected more of a resistance than just Ghost, who was a formidable opponent indeed, but still...

Augen reached his hand forward, his fingertips glowing as he gently peeled aside the cover of the book, the Wave within him gently glowing as he probed the contents of the book. Fatera stuffed her face right over Augen's head and watched with him before the two of them both made a curious sound simultaneously.

"Do we need a Cast to read this or something?" Fatera asked, poking her calloused fingers down onto the page before she started flicking it around.

Lera turned her head slightly, and she looked over Augen's shoulders before he clenched his fist together and slammed it onto the table.

"No." Augen cursed, "Fuck. This is a blank."

"You sure like your games, John."

In the meanwhile within one of John's own domains stemming from another room in the Union headquarters, his right hand woman, a girl with short curly black hair and smooth brown skin smiled as she approached him, "I heard that Ghost is done with."

"He died due to a combination of his own incompetence and foolishness." John said, standing up from his desk before he approached the girl and reached in, kissing her lightly on the lips as she giggled, "I missed you, Shaila. Winter Wars was a bitch to run, and now this shit with the Ghost..."

"I know you are happy to get rid of him~" Shaila, John's childhood friend and companion watched him closely before a smile floated up to her face. She had known John inside and out, and she knew exactly what he's thinking right now, "And that you have gotten rid of him before the Grand Commander gets here while keeping the original Manuscript to yourself...how elegant."

"Elegant indeed, just like you are."

John nodded, wrapping his hands around Shaila's slim waists before they started walking out. Then, right before they stepped foot away from the room, a communication Cast on his desk suddenly started glowing as pulses of Wave were sent out from within.

Shaila and John both felt that disturbance, and they turned around to face it when the image of a young man with golden eyes, long white hair, and an incredibly handsome face showed up over it.

John hissed sharply, his heart racing before he left Shaila, hurrying to the communication Cast, and dropped onto his knees. Shaila did the same, as the pair of golden eyes from the man finally glanced towards them.

"Grand Commander!" John said, his head firmly bowed down as Shaila followed his lead, "Have you arrived?"

"I am close." The Grand Commander said, his voice sounding young, yet there is a firmness and determination within that is unquestionable, "I presume you have prepared my quarters for my queen and I?"

"Of course!" John said, "The best room in the Union headquarters top-level had been reserved for you!"

"Very well." The Grand Commander nodded quickly before being distracted by a feminine voice in the background, and he quickly cut off the communication Cast.

"Any clues why he is coming here?" Shaila asked, "Is the PORA acting?"

"Eventually." John said, rising up to his feet, "Eventually...then, our dreams will come true too..."

"It's blank?!" Wu shot forward, hoping that his powerless eyes can see anything different, but if the two Casters, one Channeler and one Manifester couldn't get anything out of it, there was no way this fake-ass Outlier could do anything.

"Then why..." Augen said, slouching in defeat, "Why did..."

"Now that's 2 out 2 cases." Wu said, scratching the side of his head, "2 out of 2 times that the future seeing Cast was completely useless...I am starting to lose faith in this mechanic already..."

"It's...not fake." Augen said, his voice firm as he faced Wu head on, "When I glanced into the future, I merely got glimpses of information, and of the key turning points in history. Those time points chart the flow of time, but this...all of this was from my own experience at the Union."

"From my understanding, the Union was mostly controlled by the PORA, so how did you get access to something like this?" Lera asked, "If you were just a cleaner, how did you get access to so much information? About this?"

"Never underestimate the power of those that had nothing." Augen said, his expressions cryptic before he sighed, "Wu, can we talk? With just the two of us?"

Lera, Ver, and Fatera's eyes both locked onto Wu, and Lera was about to object when Wu put his hand up and assured her that it is okay. Though Lera and Ver made Augen leave behind all of the cards that he had written Casts into, just as insurance.

As Wu and Augen stepped foot onto the balcony before climbing onto the roof of the building, Augen undid the band around his eyes and let the lights from the warm sun bathe onto his scarred skin.

"So...what's your story?" Wu asked, "You are bit of an enigma, aren't you?"

"So are you." Augen smiled, leaning back, "I knew you are easy to talk to from my visions, and at least that part is correct."

"Why though?" Wu asked, sitting up, "What are you afraid of?"

"What...do you mean?"

"Before the Remnant looked into the future, he was afraid of something. He was afraid of the future, of a possibility out of an infinitely morphing and flowing time..." Wu said, thinking back to the visions of the Remnant's family slowly being torn apart by the illness of his child, "What about you? What truly scares you...?"

"Talk about being direct." Augen smiled, "Is that a trait for many in your world?"

"Nah, that's just me." Wu laughed, "Ok, how about this. Let's exchange our fears. I am scared of many things, but the things I am scared of the most is disappointing others. Particularly Lera, who had done so much for me, and had suffered just as much ever since I got here...I am also scared of uncertainty. I am scared of death. I am sure I will think of more...but what about you?"

"...Irrelevancy." Augen said, facing Wu as there were slight movements under the layers of scars over his eyes, "The war of the Fourth Millennium is coming, with PORA riding on the tide of war, and throughout the past three thousand years, these had always been the times when legends are born. I...want to be a part of it. A part of history itself, just so people will know that...I have been here."

"But why did you..." Wu asked, when Augen put his hand up.

"It's cause I can." Augen continued, "Cause I am one of the few that actually managed to conjure up the forbidden Cast to look into the future, and I walked away from it unscathed."

Wu blinked a few times, and he wasn't sure if getting blind from a Cast truly counted as being unscathed.

"There is a grand destiny waiting for us, Wu...Waiting for all of us. I understand that you do not wish to know the future, but like it or not, I already know bits and pieces of it." Augen said, reaching his hand forward at Wu being pointing straight at him, "I wish to fight by your side, and I wish to be a part of your legendary story, Wu Li."

Wu's eyes widened, and he shook his head with a chuckle.

"So far, I haven't done shit." Wu admitted, "I have honestly been carried by Lera, Ver, and Fatera all this time, and most recently, you."

"Science takes time, doesn't it?" Augen said, and Wu halted for a moment before slowly acknowledging that. From Augen's antics, this must have been something that Wu often says in his visions of the future.

"To win the upcoming war, Wu, you will need to win over the world." Augen said, continuing, "I will do my best to help you, advise you, and guide you, but at the end of the day, this is a path that you will have to walk."

"Of course." Wu laid back, "I don't like things easy. And shit, they haven’t been."

"They are only hard when you are alone, but you won't be." Augen lied down next to Wu as they watched the blue sky above, "You will find a total of nine other allies that you can entrust your life to, and they will become the generals that will fight alongside you through your journey. And together, you will all be known as the Ten Phantoms."

"Huh." Wu raised his eyebrows and gave Augen a thumbs up, "That's...cool, I guess. Just so you know, I hate spoilers. I'd rather live my life one second at a time."

"I know." Augen said, "But don't you worry, because there are already five of us here."

Wu, Lera, Ver, Augen, and Fatera...with that, the first party of five for Wu had finally been assembled.

"Wu." Lera's voice came from downstairs, and Wu popped his head down, hanging off the roof as she waved her hand back at him, "We have a guest."

Heading down into the living room, Wu and Augen caught a glance of Lily Watts, the Fire Manifester and Fatera's opponent in the finale of the Winter Wars. She's chatting to Ver about something when Wu and Augen appeared, and she turned her head towards them.

"I have a proposition for you." Lily said, as Wu rolled his eyes, "Wait...who’s this?"

"New kid on the block." Augen said, putting his hand up.

"Anyways." Lily said, "For the spring vacation, do you want to train with me on a nearby tropical island?"