Legacy of the Dark Sage

Kairos furrowed his brows at Kyran's words. His knowledge of the past was limited to the experiences and knowledge the past Overseers possessed. Thus, it was unsurprising that he did not know what Caelan did outside the tower's confines.

Indeed, Kairos's knowledge of Caelan was a mere glimpse, limited to the time the latter spent in the Tower of Tribulations, leaving the rest of his story shrouded in mystery.

Kairos's predecessor was the Overseer then, and she had yet to succumb to her death and become a remnant soul. She also had the opportunity to meet Caelan in person whenever she had to present him with his rewards.

Caelan would have been the first to conquer the Tower of Tribulations if not for the fact that the Overseer admitted they could not help him fulfill his desire— to free Layla from the Dark Sage that bound her. They could not help him because they had no idea who the Dark Sage was or where to find him. Besides, back then, Caelan did not know who it was that had bound Layla.

But it appeared that Caelan eventually found the Dark Sage. Unfortunately, the only thing he could do was seal him inside his treasure, the Macabre Glacier.

The thought of the mirror reminded Kyran of one of his doubts. He asked, his voice tinged with uncertainty, "I was told the Macabre Glacier was the Dark Sage's magic weapon, but after learning of this tower and that he might be the King of the Ancients, I wondered if it was one of the Ancients priced treasure."

"It is indeed possible..." Kairos's voice trailed off as he tilted his head slightly.

Looking at Kairos, he seemed to be listening to something he could only hear. Kyran guessed the last Overseer was speaking to Kairos at that moment.

"...Can you describe what the mirror looked like?" Kairos asked after a brief pause.

Kyran was somewhat surprised at the older man's question. Then again, the mirror might have been called differently before The Fall. The last Overseer did not react when Kyran mentioned the Macabre Glacier.

For the record, Kyran believed the last Overseer was watching his and Kairos's conversation from a concealed area, which was why he could not sense her. Nonetheless, he knew she was somewhere nearby, making it easier for her to communicate with Kairos at any moment.

"The mirror is..."

Kyran gave a detailed description of how the Macabre Glacier. He only saw it up close once but could still remember what it looked like. If not, True Void would not have been able to imitate its form when he wanted him to fool Flos and Obstruction back then.

Now that Kyran was reminded of that scene, he recalled a detail that he had not thought much of back then but had now found strange.

His color would still be purple whenever True Void shifted into a different form. But when he turned into the Macabre Glacier back then, his appearance was similar to a tee that Flos and Obstruction were fooled into thinking he might be the original.

Before Kyran's thoughts could delve further into that memory, Kairos's voice snapped him out of his reverie.

"Remove possible to what I said. That mirror is indeed a treasure of the Ancients," Kairos said after a short pause, confirming Kyran's guess. But then he shook his head with a sigh and said, "No. To be precise, the mirror was said to be a dangerous creation, and the King of the Ancients ordered it to be destroyed."

"That's why the last Overseer did not recognize it when I mentioned it."

Kairos shook his head, "Not exactly. Since the mirror failed to get the King's approval, it did not get a name. As to why it still existed when the King ordered its destruction, we don't know."

Kyran felt a headache coming on. He could think of only two reasons why the mirror had not been destroyed. First, the one who created it— most probably one of the Four Greatest Minds— could not bear to destroy it and asked the King to consider it. In return, they would find a way to fix the mirror. Second, the mirror could not be destroyed.

Kyran leaned more toward the latter because even Caelan, who could use Void to turn anything into nothingness, failed to destroy it.

"That may indeed be the case," Kairos agreed, sensing Kyran's train of thought.

Kyran sighed, "None of the knowledge you absorb says anything about the mirror?"

"None," Kairos replied, shaking his head. "Most creations that the King of the Ancients deemed dangerous and ordered to be destroyed were not introduced to the public. Thus, there would be no record of it. But if the mirror exists because one of the Four Greatest Minds suggested fixing it, then... maybe there is a record somewhere that might help us better understand it."

"If such a record existed, I'm sure it would have been in the King of the Ancients' possession. But Caelan did not find such a record..." Kyran paused as a thought crossed his mind.

As the Dark Sage's successor, he was supposed to receive all his treasures. But the only thing Kyran received was an unwanted title. It was said that Caelan took all the first of Dark Sage's treasures, including the Macabre Glacier. What if there was indeed a record of the mirror, but Kyran only assumed there was none because he had not seen the Dark Sage's other treasures?

But Caelan never mentioned anything about the Dark Sage's other treasures during their meetings inside his sea of consciousness. Then again, Caelan was only a fragment of the original left within the Void Core to help and teach Kyran when the right moment arrived. It was possible that Caelan did not possess the knowledge of the Dark Sage's other treasures and could not tell Kyran.

"There is no point wondering about that," Kyran finally said after a long pause. "Besides, there is still a small chance that the one sealed in the Macabre Glacier is not the King of the Ancients. The original Dark Sage might even be a different person altogether."

"You don't really think that," Kairos replied, giving Kyran a dubious smile.

"Well, no. But since I haven't seen the guy yet..." he frowned slightly because what he said did not make much sense. After all, even if he saw the person Caelan sealed in the Macabre Glacier, there was no way for him to confirm if it was the King of the Ancients. He did not even know what the King of the Ancients looked like.

As for the person being the Dark Sage, Kyran could only take Caelan's word for it.

"You know, never mind," Kyran said with a sigh. "The only one who could confirm if that person is the King of the Ancients is the Ancients themselves. And I'm sorry, I can't afford to have them near the mirror."

Kairos nodded his head in understanding.

"I would have felt the same if I were in your position," he said sympathetically.

"What happened after The Fall?" Kyran veered their discussion back to what happened in the past.

"As you may have already learned, the Higher Being suffered its repercussions when The Fall happened. Since he failed to uphold his duty to The Realm, he was stripped of his authority to possess the Heart of the Cosmos. The Heart of the Cosmos hid inside the tower until a mage favored by The Emperor discovered her.

"You may or may not know, but The Emperor used to be the Higher Being's successor. So when the Higher Being disappeared, he took over and established himself as the new 'authority.'"

"No wonder he thinks everything in the Higher Realm belongs to him."

"Yes. In a sense, he isn't wrong. Because at the pace he was going back then, he would eventually become an existence similar to the Higher Being."

"'The pace he was going back then,'" Kyran repeated with a wry smile. "You mean to say that is no longer the case."

"Exactly," Kairos nodded with a similar smile. "You are already aware of the rumors surrounding the Dragon Emperor's imminent breakthrough."

Kyran nodded, "The Emperor's clan also attacked the Dragon plane recently. I don't know the odds between the two, but I heard that the Dragon Clan successfully fended off their attack.

"Although the Emperor did not participate in the attack, the Dragon Emperor was also absent. This alone is a testament that the Dragon Clan is gaining momentum."

"I also only learned of it. Nonetheless, the Dragon Emperor, gaining momentum at this point, threatens The Emperor's authority."

"Let's go back to that mage The Emperor favored," Kyran said, putting a stop to their discussion about matters happening at present so they would not veer too far from the past.

"Of course," Kairos chuckled. "But you seem to have an idea about him."

"Layla mentioned him," Kyran admitted with a slight nod. "And I've read a few recent entries about him from the tablets I borrowed from Axil."

Kairos nodded, "You also thought that mage might have been the Dark Sage."

"Yes," Kyran replied with a sigh. "Because of him, I'm not 100% sure the King of the Ancients was the Dark Sage because there were clues that point toward him."

"Then I will tell you what I know about him. It may help you further analyze who the Dark Sage was. But I have to warn you, what I can tell you is based on the things the previous Overseers managed to glean from the Tower of the Ancients participants."