Zero Potential: Chapter 23 (Patreon)

Chapter 23

On an island tucked far away from the rest of the civilized world six figures worked tirelessly, using their powers over fate to reach out through the currents of time.

Their goal was simple, they had to replace the head oracle, a new leader had already been chosen.

Through rite of succession, the next oldest oracle in the order would automatically take the place of the last elder, unless there were concerns. Fortunately, there were none. At least no one dared to voice their opinions if any were had. As such a new Matriarch of the order of long forgotten Keepers rose to power.

However, unlike the transitions of her predecessors, this Matriarch of the order never received the revelations that come with a transition. She never noticed the deep records of the past. There was no increase in power from her previous position of Great Sage to that of an Oracle.

Instead, all she felt was normal.

Well not normal, one of her kind and power could never feel normal. She still felt the tug of the great currents of fate calling for her to watch and wait for the next calamity to come. But she never witnessed the birth of the order, something that was said to come to all true Matriarchs once they took the reins.

Worse, the connection to the next Seer that would take the vaunted seventh position was missing.

For the Matriarch, so many things were going wrong that she couldn’t help but fret at the consequences of losing yet another major task. While her loyal guards were out searching for the next Seer who would be fully awakened, she was left with a choice.

Right now, she had to decide the fate of not only her order, but also the world.

“What should we do vaunted Matriarch?” The second oldest asked.

While the question was fully justified, it still caused anger to swell up in the Matriarch. Anger that was designed to cover up the sudden fear she was feeling. She was under-prepared; she was not strong enough to perform the duties that others were now entrusting to her. As she clearly wasn’t powerful enough to become a full Oracle, while her powers were clearly higher than those around her, she knew she still lacked that undefinable thing that would make her a true Oracle.

Unfortunately, she didn’t have time to correct this action. Right now, every instinct in her was screaming that things were wrong, and yet she as the new head of the Divine Order had to act the part.

“We need to create the ritual.” The Matriarch finally concluded, for it was better to be too cautious, than to lose any second.

With that all six faces turned towards the sphere that still glowed mostly clear, with only a tiny, condensed ball of darkness at the center.

“Are you sure we can’t wait?” Number three asked, concern evident in her voice.

“Yes, we need to act now, even in our weakened state, it is clear that the being of ultimate evil is laying low, consolidating their powers.” The Matriarch of the Divine Order stated. This was her understanding of what she was seeing, for she had seen other Matriarchs call to arms when the ball of impurity was a lot smaller than this, and without the guidance of the ancients to go from, she could only go by past examples. That is why she went not with what her gut told her, but what her past told her to do.

There was a moment of silence as everyone realized what this meant, well everyone but the newest Seer who had only been called in after the last Hero had been chosen. By then she had been an integral part in providing near constant energy to the Hero so they could perform their heavenly duties. Duties that nearly destroyed every member of the Divine Order, now with only a few months’ time to rest, she had to prepare to go through that very same torture, again.

***

Dean Philton sat behind his large mahogany desk reviewing reports of what happened.

“Fifteen guards, ten teachers, and even two reckless students were lost.” Dean Philton said, as he went over the numbers.

“On the bright side, the students were only F-Class students.” Professor Tillerman noted.

“Yes, about that, from your report you said that you personally sent the second F-Class student up.” Dean Philton said, a note of question filling his words as he held the very paper with Tillerman’s testimony of events.

“I guess I did, what of it?” Tillerman asked.

“That was well before you went back up and Alderman apparently led a charge into the dungeon. Then a second larger group of fifteen guards and teachers went in, only to also be crushed. Yet, right around the time the one hundred and tenth floor was cleared, we received an alert stating that a student wearing F-Class uniform had left the campus grounds.” Dean Philton said.

“Okay, that was probably the Diviner.” Tillerman said, noting the obvious correlation.

“That is what I originally thought too. That is until later on in the evening when a second missing student alert was triggered by a second F Class student trying to leave campus. We managed to scramble the riders to search for this student in time, especially as the prince and all his fellow classmates were safely under lock and key. Do you know what we found?”

“No? What?”

“We found a student with exceptional skills posing to be a F Class student. Our aerial unit gave chase and were eventually able to capture the student, but only after we confirmed two things.” With that the Dean paused for dramatic effect, finally after a few minutes Professor Tillerman reluctantly asked the question that he was clearly meant to ask all along.

“And what were they?”

“First, we discovered that the student was no real student but an awakened Seer on mission from the Divine Order themselves.”

“The, the Divine Order? Why would they be here?” Tillerman asked, shock and confusion warring on his face.

“That is a great question, one that we ourselves asked, and do you know what she answered.”

“What?”

“She said she was searching for someone she thought to be the harbinger of evil.”

“Here at our school?”

“Well not here anymore, as it turns out it would appear that the harbinger of evil hid in plain sight as an F-Rank evolution talent.” Dean Philton said.

“How? We scanned everyone coming in?”

“Yes, but only their potential for growth, what if the harbinger of evil was already as powerful as they were ever going to get?” Dean Philton asked.

At that Tillerman’s face went visibly pale as he realized.

“Wait, you don’t mean the upstart?” Tillerman asked, his eyes growing wide as he managed to connect all the pieces.

“Yes, it would appear that she infiltrated our school, hid right below our noses, entered our dungeon and then got the first clear bonuses for clearing an additional sixty levels, before leaving with her absconded goods.” Dean Philton said.

“What are we going to do about this?”

“What can we do about this? We have the word of a minor Seer from a destitute order that is slowly fading to obscurity. On top of that, we have what would appear to be one of the greatest mishandled events of our generation, with having the possible harbinger of evil here on our campus, where she beat up a professor, flipped our class ranking systems, and then dominated classrooms without anyone being aware of them.” With that last part, the Dean made sure to emphasize the part about missing the not-so-subtle clues that were released within the classroom.

“So, our play is to do nothing?”

“Exactly. We are already floundering from the missing professors and royal guards who all think themselves capable enough of clearing a dungeon that was apparently soloed by an F rank student. We will falsify the claims and say that the student while having cleared the lower dungeon died when they pressed their luck.”

“Will they believe it?”

“Who else can they believe?”

“But that is it, we are doing nothing?”

“What else could we do. We have already set free the Seer, in the hopes that she would be able to better hide her tracks while crossing the border.”

“So, what? We are going to let the Seer do everything?”

“No, we are going to let the Divine Order do their job and the mission they have been tasked with by the Gods themselves.”

With that there was a moment of silence as the two contemplated what they were to do. Secretly Tillerman’s mind was alight with possible scenarios that he could spin to use this to finally take over the role of Dean of the Academy. But then a thought hit him, as everything was far too conveniently explained.

“Why are you telling me all of this?” Tillerman finally asked.

“Because right now you and I are what they call a fated pair. If I fall, and I likely will if even half of what we have discovered comes to life, know that there is enough evidence that you too will fall with me.” Dean Philton said.

And with that Professor Tillerman realized that he had been outplayed, before he even had a chance to rationalize a potential counter move. Once he realized that, he stared at the Dean with a note of respect and fury in his eyes.

Then shifting his gaze away, he looked out the fifth story window that looked south. There he saw that the rays of the sun were beginning to rise. Then moments before the full lite of morning burned away the last remnants of night, a giant golden lance of light shot down from the heavens and seemed to illuminate the countryside with intense burning light.

Blinking.

Both the Dean and Tillerman first saw the burst, one whose light was so bright and intense that it burned giant pillars of multi-colored lights into the back of their retinas.

Thunderclap.

Then the next second they heard and felt the sonic boom associated with such an intense beam of light piercing the sky.

***

Terra was running through the forest. At the time her one concern was to get as much distance as possible between her and the Immortal, while literature about the fearsome creatures was rare and often times proven to be contradictory, there was one key factor that they all had in common. Namely that Immortals had their capabilities reduced during the daylight, and that hunting them was only possible when aided by the direct noon day sun.

That was why Terra pushed herself now, trying to gain an initial lead, one that would only be increased by continuing to run during the daylight hours. In time she would have to stop, but years of training and constantly being on the run had made it so she knew her limits. Right now, even with her body still growing into her body’s full powers, she knew that she had two more days of hard running at least, before she would need to stop. By then she planned on being far away from the Immortal.

In her mind she made strategies to run and create a death trap that she would use the white pendant within her hands as bait. Her thought process was that it would be a lot easier to kill people that were hunting the broach, than it would be for her to continue to remain being the hunted party the whole time.

These thoughts were going through her mind as she left the complete darkness of night and slowly felt the rays of light begin to illuminate the paths ahead. At times like these Terra imagined herself to be part tree, as she let her body get infused by the ambient power and rays of the sun, forcing her to awaken even more as she continued to run.

Then behind her, she felt a deep tingling of divine energy.

Shocked.

Terra felt her feet grind to a stop on their own, as she turned to look at the source of the power.

“Finally.” Terra muttered, as her heart began to beat and pulse rapidly. It had finally come, for she had known that sensation of energy, it was the same one that always happened when she found herself to be blessed once again by the Gods. It was the sensation that she had grown so immune to that she had forgotten until this lifetime what it meant to be chosen, what it meant to be special.

This time she would not curse the blessing, this time she promised that she would do everything within her power to be absolutely perfect and deserving of the blessings.

Terra saw the glowing pillar of light build up in the sky, then she saw it hurtle down at the earth. She was so close that she could feel the powers of divinity shining down and blessing everything within its path. Which was why she almost missed the fact that the beam of light wasn’t meant for her, as it had gone to someone else.

For a moment the empty void that had been inside her heart was filled with golden light and purpose. For the first time since this most recent life of hers started over she felt alive and filled with purpose.

Coldness.

Like a bucket with a hole at the bottom, Terra’s soul began to slowly empty of the golden radiance that had filled it up moments ago. Then she felt her body grow cold and shiver as she realized that she once had warmth, but that quickly faded.

Only once everything was gone, and the coldness of reality sunk in did she realize the truth.

Terra realized that the golden purpose wasn’t meant for her, as the Gods had abandoned her and had apparently chosen a new champion.

Dropping to her knees, she for the first time let the reality of the situation fill her.

Then, just as everything was where Terra felt they were at their worst, the final hammer struck.

“Found you!” A malevolent voice cried out from the wilderness, a voice that she had hoped to be able to outrun by now.