Unknown

I leave the room, closing and locking the door behind me distracted. Shutting away the anguished screams with a click as the sound barrier holds. Assad passes me a cloth and I wipe the blood from my hands.

"What do we know?" I ask as we walk from the dark underbelly of Edward Castle to the well lit halls of the first floor.

A slave brings me a bowl of scented water to wash my hands and face.

"The ritual is nearly complete. With the kings of 8 countries now possessed we have had access to a lot more information and slaves for sacrifices," Assad assures quickly.

"The moment we begin the ritual in its entirety every spirit and sorcerer on Pangaea will feel it. Maybe the whole of Gaia," his nervousness is starting to show. Will I have to kill this one as well?

"I know. But by then it will be too late for anyone to stop us," my smile is sharp and joyless; this road is nearly at an end. My life's work. My life so far in any case.

"How many cults are with us still?" I know how fickle those 'priests' can be.

"Several are with us," I get a figure I can live with. "Their deities are desperate to enter the mortal realm."

"Good, this will make things easier. Kill everyone that we have approached that hasn't accepted. Leave none alive that knows who we are, it's about time we moved."

"Yes Master," Assad says with a bow but doesn't leave.

"Is there anything else?"

"We have an agent at one of the smaller continents to the south. Rumour is a large deposit of celestial ore has been found."

I immediately give him my entire attention. Celestial ore can be used to make spiritual scalable weapons, artifacts, conduits, foci and a host of other powerful amulets and talismans. A spiritual weapon in the hands of a sorcerer is a force of nature.

"How powerful are the current holders?" I ask already thinking of reordering some priorities.

"It's an isolated continent that barely knows anything about sorcery nor do they use amulets or talismans. They are only now dabbling into enchanting, but without outside influence it will take them many years still to be dangerous. Though they are known to have powerful magicians."

"Wizards?"

"None we couldn't handle unless some migrated there from Pangaea and are hiding themselves. They are a private bunch." Assad assures.

"A meteorite fell or are these old recently discovered deposits?"

"Meteorite, tribes of primitives currently holds the deposits. None amongst them have even touched mana until recently, though it is reported that fae have begun sniffing around."

A spiritual conduits would make things so much easier when we perform the ritual. If we all had one we may even pull this off without being completely reduced to ash, worth the risk if it isn't too time consuming to get the material.

"Who else knows about this?"

"Unknown, but the sub-continent is isolated from the rest of the world by mermen and stormy seas. They have no outside trade."

Assad is too useful to be rid of. I can't but grin, "I'm not worried about those old snakes. The fae Courts are the current stewards of the world we live in, they have rules they cannot break when dealing with Gaia natives. How larrge are these tribal populations?"

"Unknown, the nation haven't united. The largest nation in the area is known as Sandaria and the continent is being called by the same name by some."

"We will need to go ourselves. If any other faction finds out about this it will become a race to the finish line," I say as we walk into my study.

I activate my crystal scrying ball with mana and am soon facing Uria.

"Collect the others. In a month’s time we should be leaving for Sandaria. Ensure that they extract themselves quietly. I don't want the Order to suspect anything too soon, Assad will give you the details."

"Yes Master." Uria says and the connect ends.

I write two letters to the agents too deeply embedded in their covers to accept magical communication. Even the ever watchful Order let's things slip by them. Especially the more mundane things.

The senile old fools probably still think their precious Tiba to be a secret hide-away. Fools all of them. We have hundreds of agents imbedded in their population and many who are initiates of the Order.

Almost an hour later I'm walking back into the basements. Only this time going deeper with a terrified virgin slave girl being dragged behind me.

She is trying and failing to resist the compulsion to obey placed on her soul. Her feet shuffle in protest but they shuffle ever forward, deeper into the iron scented gloom.

We go deeper this time to parts of the 'dungeons' so heavily enchanted that even the two slave warriors behind the girl are ready to piss themselves from fear.

It’s interesting how slaves behave sometimes. I wonder what is going through their minds when they are compelled to walk headlong into a gruesome death.

We reach the alpha ritual chamber and I immediately bleed the girl by her wrists. Dismissing the two slaves who quickly scramble away.

I use her blood to activate the circle permanently etched into the stone. We have learnt many things from the spirits from the beyond and in return we have helped hundreds of them migrate to the mortal realm through the years.

But there are spirits that are too powerful to inhibit mortal flesh without being greatly diminished even with our preparations. Sorcery is a delicate art. Give too much and they take advantage, give too little and they keep a grudge.

No one wants an immortal creature to hold a grudge against them. I pour my mana into the circle; I have a very deep mana pool due to the secret arts. But even so summoning Vritra is on another level of energy consuming. A level I haven't yet reached, at least not without a human sacrifice. And even then I only get a shadow of one of the creature’s avatars.

I chant the words of power under my breath and immediately fall on my knees, completely drained.

"Why have you summoned me before it is time mortal?" The disembodied voice that is the patron of our sorcerous cabal asks. A thousand thousand knives stab into my ears at that voice, I bleed even though this chamber protects me from the worst of the backlash.

The thing is powerful, and the mana contract we have with it prevents us from betraying it. As any sorcerer knows you should never trust a spirit but even I wouldn't dare to cross one of the direct children of the Seven.

"There will be a bit of a delay on the attack on the gates," I say, and then explain myself.

Even the spirits covet celestial material for they can use it instead of flesh to embody themselves. Many a spirit has embodied an object or became an artifact made of celestial material. Who knows what else they could do with the material.

"Very well, a slight delay of a decade or two will not impede so long as you don't fail in recovering this material. You have done well to inform us. I will reward you if you are successful, if not.." the pain sharpens stabbing deep into my spirit-body.

With that the presence is gone and I sigh in reliefwiping the bloody sweat from my brow. Nothing but a dedicated husk remains of the pretty slave girl that was my conduit.

Sometimes I wonder what the fuck I've gotten myself into but turning back now would be suicide.

Eventually the Ascension Gates will open to the creatures from the beyond either way. At least this way I get something out of it. A shiver runs through me at the thought of giving all these powerful spirit creatures and previous Ascendants access to Gaia and the seven worlds.

If all goes as planned this will bring Gaia into a higher energy level, so not all is soon and gloom. Enabling spiritual creatures to be more powerful here and have more access will bring power and sorcery even to the masses, the world should thank me.

But that's just the start, who knows what the spirits are planning after that. Another shiver goes through me before I fully recover and start making my way out of the ritual chamber.

Soon our part in this will be done and we can then keep far away from these hateful creatures.

Hopefully.