Revelations
Disclaimer: Don't own the SaGa Frontier characters or anything else from the game.
Author's Note: The first few chapters were originally written by Lynn Utsukushii. I merely modified them a little. The rest are by me and my group of crazy friends.
Everything was quiet and still in the Magic Kingdom, the only disturbance caused by the sound of rain tapping against the window panes. Night hads fallen over the peaceful town known as the Magic Kingdom, and the stars twinkling brightly in the inky-black sky. mMost of the residents have already retired, exhausted from performing their daily duties. However, some light still shone from the the rooms in the large mansion at the edge of town, which was the home of the Magic Kingdom's Resident Professor of the Magic Kingdom. In one of the rooms sat several individuals around a large mahogany table. They were the Resident Professor Renk, more commonly referred to as Renk-sama, Professor Ares from Garland Magic Academy, Professor Houga from Merond Magic Academy and Professor Jalian from Krisan Magic Academy.
The Resident Professor stood up and acknowledged his guests, "I wish to thank you all for taking the time to come. I have called you all here to discuss a very disturbing issue. As you no doubt already know, the seal to the Portal is, As you already know, it seems that tunfortunately, gradually weakening day by day. gradually. We have already tried to strengthen the seal with using Gate magic, but it has only served to lengthen the weakening time. We are not certain when the seal will break, but there is no doubt that it will. And when it does, the demons trapped in the Portal will escape and wreak havoc not only in the Magic Kingdom, but in the other regions as well. I have called you all here in hopes that you may know of some way to prevent this from happening. Any sSuggestions?"
Professor Houga leaned back in his seat, "…Kuso… It is obvious that Hell's Lord and his demons are getting stronger, or else the Gate spell would have worked… That means that resealing the Portal is out of the question, for now at least."
Professor Jalian nodded nods his head in agreement, "You are correct, Houga-sama. Resealing is out of the question. And if Hell's Lord is getting stronger, then we had best be ready for his attack." Looking at the Resident Professor, he continued, " In my opinion, Renk-sama, since we do not know when Hell's Lord will attack, we should start training our magicians to face him now."
The Resident ProfessorRenk-sama askedasks, "Jalian… And hHow do you expect to train over five thousand students to become great magicians, when it takes almost ten years just to train someone into becoming a Master Magician?"
"I'm sure that if we devise an effective enough schedule, we can do it," Prof. Jalian answeredanswers, "And besides, they do not have to be Master Magicians. Just good enough to hold their own in a battle."
Prof. Houga eyed him critically for a moment, then snorted derisively, snorts, "And Hell's Lord will just flick them off with his pinky. Either that, or he'll have them for lunch. You need to be a Master Magician if you want to go head to head with Hell's Lord and come out alive. Even coming out halfway dead would be considered a great feat."
Prof. Jalian frowned slightly at the scornful note in his voice.. He didn't like it when someone mocked his idea. Sensitive chap, that's what he was. "Then what do you suggest we do?Well now, I don't see you offering any suggestions to remedy this problem. What do you suggest we do, since you're oh-so-smart?" he asked sharply, ending it with a little sarcasm. When something as dangerous as Hell's Lord was involved, Jalian could get awfully short-tempered and snappish. But that's just his natural protective streak awakening.
"Calm down, Jalian-sama. No need to get all worked up. I agree with you that we should train a magician to be able to defend himself when in battle with Hell's Lord and his lackeys. However, we do not need to train every one of them."
They turned to look at Professor Ares, who had not spoken a word since the meeting had begun. Ares was around the same age as Jalian, which would be around the late twenties, but while the latter had cranberry shoulder-length hair accompanied by bright green eyes, Ares was granted raven-black hair (reaching to the middle of his back) that was usually seen tied as a ponytail that trailed down his back, and coal-black eyes. Their personalities were as different as their looks. Which explained why they didn't get along too well. The young professor appeared unfazed under the scrutiny of the others and says, Allow me to explain."In my opinion, Iif we intend to train every single one of our students, well, heh heh… lLet me just say that I would rather kill myself right here and now than do so."
Houga looked at Jalian with a smug smirk planted on his face. See? Even Ares believed that the plan was baloney. Okay, so what if Houga was the eldest among the three? Isn't he allowed to be smug sometime? Yes, he thought so too.
"We do not need so many magicians if we have a powerful one. One that has mastered all the magic in the world, and I mean all, would be able to face Hell's Lord and come out alive and well."
The Resident ProfessorRenk-sama asks, "What do you mean by 'all'? You should know that no one is capable of learning all the magic in the world, not even Master Magicians. It's virtually impossible!"
Prof. Ares just smirked, explained, "Ah… yes, so true, so true. But recently, I have been doing some research on the learning of magic. After years months of research, I have come to thea conclusion. that wContrary to popular opinion, when a person acquires the gift of a specific type of magic, that gift is embedded into his psychic body, or rather, his spirit., and not into his physical body. All we have to do is find a way to enable that spirit to acquire all the gifts, and we'll have the ultimate magician. And I have already devised the plan to do so."
"But like I said-"
"But like you said, Renk-sama, one person cannot acquire all the gifts that exists in this world. That is why my plan will need two magicians, preferably young and related to each other in some way or other."
An interested look appeared on Prof. Houga's face, "Really. What do you have in mind?"
He smiled, "I amI'm so glad you asked, Houga-sama. It is simple, actually. Allow me to explain. Since the magic gifts are embedded in the psychic body, and not in the physical body, all we have to do is get two magicians to acquire different magic gifts, and then merge their psychic bodies into becoming one."
"Interesting…" Renk-sama mused, "How do you intend to 'merge' the two?" the Resident Professor asked.
"Before they leave on their separate quests to acquire the gifts, we will give each of them a pendant. Those pendants have magical abilities that will enable their psychic bodies to merge. They are to wear that pendant at all times, especially when acquiring a gift."
"But why must they be related, and young?" Prof. Jalian asked suspiciously. He was beginning to seriously doubt this plan. Merging psychic bodies? Won't that have some effect on their conscience?
"I never said that they had to be related. I just said 'preferably'. It is just that when two people are related, their psychic connections are usually much deeper, which makes it easier to merge. Everyone with half a brain would know that," And being young makes it easy to manipulate them into believing us. When they are young, they are naïve, and will believe anything we say. We will need that naivete if we want to succeed," Prof. Ares explained, a tinge of impatience in his voice. All right. It's official. He does not like Jalian. patiently, "And I have already chosen my 'candidates', if that is alright with you, Renk-sama?"
"Who are they?"
"They? Actually, I have only chosen one. TheyHe areis the children of the now deceased Master Magician Kyle. His wife, Liang, is still alive and has just given birth to a healthy boy. I believe you know her, Jalian-sama," Prof. Ares looked at Prof. Jalian, who just stared at him in shock.
He then shook his head, his cranberry locks swishing from side to side with the motion. He asked, and asked, disbelief in his voice, "W-Why would you choose Liang's child? I know Kyle was a powerful Master Magician, but there are other's far more powerful than he. You said you needed two, right? Well, Liang has only one child! Why did you choose her?"
Ares rolled his eyes, "I know that. I can count, you know? Hmm… Why did I choose her? Because when her child was sent for the usual tests, it was discovered that the gift of magic in him is incredibly strong. The second One of the strongest ever! It would be a shame to throw that away, wouldn't it? Such a strong gift, only to be set aside because he is an only child." Prof. AresHe shrugged, "A simple thing like that won't stop me. Remember that Doctor Kadosky hads found a way to duplicate a child after birth. As long as a sample of the child's cells has been taken one week after birth, he would be able to create a clone of that child easily." A crafty glint appeared in his dark eyes. Fear that glint. "Wouldn't Liang be happy to have twins?"
"But that would be tampering with nature!" Prof. Jalian protested, "I know that the cloning process has been going on for months now, and I hold no grudge against it, but never have we tried to actually merge two people into one! What will happen to their conscience? Their bodies? We do not know and that is why we shouldn't do it!"
"Why not, Mr. Negative? It's for the better good of our residents, isn't it?" Prof. Ares snapped. Jalian was really wearing his patience to the max. "The gift in Liang's child is so strong, and the cloning process copies the exact DNA,. and So that means that the clone will have the exact magic level as that of the child. We will have two powerful magicians, who will merge into one ultimate magician. The only one who has mastered all the magic in the world! What's so bad about that?"
"Hmm… The question is, will Liang-san agree to this?" Prof. Houga asked.
He just just smiled, "Leave that to me." Then he turned to the Resident Professor, ignoring Prof. Jalian, "What do you think of my plan, Renk-sama? I assure you that no harm will come of this plan, to the mother, to the childof or to his clone. It is perfect. It is flawless."
Even the Resident Professor had to admit that Prof. Ares' plan was perfect. He turned to Prof. Jalian and saidsays, "Jalian, I am sorry that you do not agree with Ares' plan, but I don't see why we should worry about it. It does seem flawless. And Liang-san will be blessed with twins, so in the end, she will be happy. And besides, we have no other choice. The Magic Kingdom, the very world in fact, is at stake here."
What could he say to that? When the Resident Professor made up his mind and okayed something, no one can protest against it. Do so, and you are so dead. So Prof. Jalian just slumped in his seat, knowing fully well when he is defeated. But he still thought that they shouldn't do it. Has anybody thought about the consequences? Evidently not.
Prof. Ares was immensely pleased when he finally kept quiet. Good. At least he wouldn't have to hear him rant about 'tampering with nature'. His plan was perfect. And if the twins' minds screwed up later because of the merging, well, everyone makes mistakes don't they? He didn't care whose life he used. It didn't matter just as long as the Magic Kingdom was safe.
He says, "Then I guess I will proceed on convincing Liang to agree with cloning her son. I would like to ask that we keep the rest of this plan a secret from her, though. And the twins, too. Let them all believe that they were chosen because of their power, like everybody else was. And it would be preferable to keep the twins in different magic academies, so that they will not get… too close."
"Why?" Prof. Jalian asked, suspicion once again appearing in his voice. Bad enough he wanted to clone the child, now he wants to keep them apart too?
Prof. Ares scowled briefly when Prof. Jalian opened his mouth again, but explained it anyway, since the other two were also waiting for his answer, "Jalian-sama, this is why I want them to be young, because we will depend on their naivete here. They need to trust us, to believe us fully if this plan is to succeed. Wwe must keep them as far apart as possible.
You see, in order to merge their psychic bodies, they will have to fight. To the death. The winner shall receive the skills and spells of the other. They will not do that if they get an opportunity to… 'bond'. Only one will remain, and that one will be the our ultimate magician."