“So you are telling me that a great darkness is incoming, but you don’t know what it is.” The Maharishi said slowly.

  “Yes.”

  “And that said, darkness is supported by Fate herself?”

  “I’m fairly sure Death also supports it, but yeah.”

  “And you found all this out using a magic that circumvents Fate and looks into the future? Something that should be completely impossible.”

  She raised her thumb. “Exactly.”

  The Maharishi took in a slow breath, looking like he was doubting his life choices. (Among others his choice to remain alive) “Great. Just great. So what do we do now?”

  He had to suppress his chuckle at her face. She looked just like a fish out of water. It was obvious she hadn’t expected him to believe her.

  After collecting herself, she began, “In all honesty, I don’t have that much of a plan right now. We know next to nothing about this opponent after all. I’m just informing every major player I can, who I know will fight what’s coming. Planning comes after knowing what resources we’re working with. We have time, so it should be used. So you in?”

  “Yes. But I believe we should keep it on the down low for now, to make sure no mass panic breaks out.” He chuckles. “It would be quite difficult to get Gulab Jamun when the people start hoarding, after all.”

  “Alright. I have to ask. What is it with world-class wizards and sweets? Both you and Dumbledore seem obsessed with them.”

  “You talk like you aren’t one yourself. You are dangerous even to me, and I haven’t felt that ever since I finished my Finals.” His gaze drifted off into nothingness for a second before he continued, “And you can’t tell me you don’t like sweets. I can see that bar of chocolate behind your Grimoire, you know. You might not be able to get it either if the hoarding starts.”

  “I definitely agree. We should keep it on the down low to protect the people and prevent the mass panic and hysteria that would result from announcing this to the world.”

  The Maharishi nodded, “It could get even worse. If the ICW uses the ancient and respected tactic of deny-deny-deny to keep votes, then we might even get into conflict with them. That would definitely get in the way. Although the ministries and the ICW should definitely be contacted as well. If their reelections aren’t in danger, they will not bring the public against us, so it should be safe.”

  “We should keep the British Ministry out of the loop. The current minister is already throwing a hissy fit about the return of Tommyboy. I don’t want to know how he would react to something worse. They’re pretty much useless anyway, if you ignore Amelia Bones and Alastor Moody.”

  “I agree.”

  For a while, they sit in silence before Azarynth finally asks him.

  “What’s your favourite tea?”

  “I know I am Indian, but I have to admit I prefer Kabusecha, so long as it is a good one. I rarely find someone good at making it, and I myself am absolutely hopeless, so I usually settle for a Masala.”

  “Well, you are in luck.” She waved her hand, and a Japanese tea set appeared in front of them. “I don’t have everything needed for a proper tea ceremony right now, but we can have a decent Kabusecha no problem.”

  She filled tea leaves and hot water into the tea can, her hands moving with an accuracy that could only be gained by repetition.

  For almost two minutes, silence persisted. Then she filled the tea into the tea cups. First hers half-full, then the Maharishi’s almost to the brim, and then she filled her own with the same amount as before, resulting in the same exact amount of tea as the Maharishi’s cup contained.

  After taking a sip, the Maharishi sighed.

  “This is really good, thank you. Could you tell me the secret? Whenever I try to follow what they tell you to do, it is nothing like this.”

  “Did you ask that question before?”

  “Yes, but they just told me it has to do with the soul and the intent when making it.”

  “That’s fairly accurate in my experience. I wouldn’t be able to tell you what I do either. From a certain point onwards, it’s just feeling.”

  They sip their tea in silence for a few more seconds before the Maharishi finally decides to get down to business.

  “How do you intend for this whole thing to be organised?”

  “In all honesty, I have no Idea. I am used to Guild and Raid structures, which tend to be really chaotic, and only really work because everyone is used to the chaos that comes with the structure. It’s pretty much just many small teams working together with no specific plan. Everyone just does what they are best at, and it works out, because there is always someone who specialises in whatever is necessary. Sadly, I doubt that will work here. Especially since we have to prepare before we start fighting.”

  “That does sound a bit…” He hesitates, “suboptimal.”

  “You’re putting it kindly. It might even be worse than if no other Archmages were informed. They wouldn’t get in each other’s way if they weren’t preparing.”

  “Are there really no other structures you considered?”

  “I did consider a council structure, with the members representing different factions of this whole thing. It might descend into endless bureaucracy, though.”

  “What about one where you make the decisions? What’s in the way of that?”

  “Are you crazy, old man? I can’t even organise my own table, much less a whole war effort!”

  “Hahaha… That reaction made it so worth it. But I have to admit I agree with you. You are a fighter, not a backseat general. But a council structure… hmm… I hadn’t considered that, but it might just be what we need. The question is how the council members are decided.”

  “I’d say we just use votes. Every Archmage belongs to a field, so they can vote for their representative. We have a council of twelve in total. Seven representing their respective continents, two representing light and dark respectively, one representing the neutrals and finally me. Then we would be able to hold votes in a smaller circle.”

  “And what if a vote is six to six?”

  “Maybe have my vote as a tie-breaker? So if it’s 6-6, then my vote counts double?”

  “And what if one person fits two positions? For example, Albus representing Europe and the Light or me representing Asia and the Light?”

  “Then you’d have to decide what you take. Only one vote per person. It would get quite annoying otherwise. It’s far from perfect, but it’s what I would recommend. Still, I think it would be best to discuss this with the other major archmages. Maybe they have better ideas.”

  “Who would you invite?”

  “Besides you, Albus Dumbledore and Thomas Garling are definitely the first two I would think about. Add to that the immortal Mahavatar Babaji, some special guests of mine, who’d rather stay anonymous and representatives of unusual paths, including knights, samurai, and cultivators, with one representative from each. Maybe a Shinobi as well? And some magical creatures, but I will rely on your and Gringotts’ expertise there.”

  “Sounds like a decent plan, I’m in. How about I recruit the Mahavatar and Garling, and you deal with the rest? You have better relations with Gringotts than I, and you are on good terms with Albus as far as I know.”

  “Alright. When do we start? Right after tea?”

  “Good Idea. No time like the present.”

  The rest of the tea ceremony passed in silence.

  It had been a refreshingly normal day for Albus Dumbledore. There were no ICW emergencies, no ministry drama and no new attacks from Voldemort. All in all, he was very happy about this.

  ‘I can finally savour my lemon drops in peace.’

  He chuckled to himself. Such peaceful days were a rarity these days, and he would relish in this rare experience.

  “It seems my luck is quite good for once.” He said to himself.

  Sadly for him, he would soon find out that this peace was not meant to be. This happened in the form of a certain Azarynth Veyloran entering his room.

  As soon as he saw her, he felt a headache coming. While she didn’t look stressed, she had that look that is only present in people about to deal with important paperwork, or otherwise doing important organisational work. This was not as bad as an attack, but it still turned this wonderful, boring day into something special.

  “So…” He sighed. “What do you want?”

  “Don’t worry, this won’t take long, Albus. I have class in like fifteen minutes.”

  Right. There was that. Albus had been so preoccupied with tearfully burying his dreams of a boring and peaceful day that he’d forgotten this tiny detail.

  “Then indulge me.”

  “Well, long story short, I have talked with the Maharishi, and we have decided to talk with the major players of our world to actually decide how we want to organise the fight against the incoming darkness. This meeting will, hopefully, consist of you, the Maharishi, the Mahavatar, Mr Garling, representatives of the Cultivators, Knights, Samurai and Shinobi, as well as some mysterious guests of mine, who’d rather stay anonymous for now. Are you in?”

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “Of course. Thank you for inviting me. When is the meeting?”

  “In exactly twenty days.”

  “See you there.”

  Azarynth immediately spotted the not-so-subtle dismissal and left.

  “A meeting, huh?” He once again chuckled to himself, “That will certainly be interesting.”

  The first DADA class had quite a bit of an impact on the students, especially on those who had believed themselves to be strategic geniuses (99% of Slytherins). One of those students had been Daphne Greengrass. While she hadn’t been one of those who got heavily criticised by the new teacher, she’d still been shown how much she didn’t know and how arrogant she’d gotten.

  While she wasn’t as bad as that girl Granger, she’d still believed herself to be incredibly knowledgeable at the tactical parts of magical warfare and combat. It had gotten so bad that she’d believed her grandfather, one of the leaders in the war against Grindelwald, was no longer capable of teaching her in this field. While her Grandfather had been too kind to do so, this new teacher had utterly shattered her delusions simply by showing a memory and discussing it with the class.

  The Ideas of her classmates seemed very good to her, but all of them had immense weaknesses she hadn’t been able to find. It was when Nott gave his correction that she finally realised something essential. ‘If I’d led that fight, we’d have lost for sure.’

  Instead of getting discouraged by this thought, she turned it into motivation to improve. She’d conferred with her Grandfather and asked him to impart some of his own experience to her. Additionally, she’d begun studying everything about magical warfare she could, as soon as the class ended.

  Now it was finally time to see how much she had improved, and how much she still had to learn. It was time for the next DADA class. Both the Slytherins and the Griffindors were already in front of the door to the classroom, even though they still had five minutes. It seemed she was not the only one excited for the next class.

  “Well, some of you are early.” The voice of their teacher rang out from within the classroom, and the door swung open right after. Their teacher was sitting in her chair and was currently reading a book. “Please come in and sit down.”

  After complying, they sat down in complete silence. Daphne used this opportunity to study the new teacher once again, now that the previous bias against DADA professors no longer affected her. What she saw fit exactly what her Grandfather had suspected.

  This woman was strong. No, not just strong. Experienced. It was obvious in the way she walked. Thinking back, she realised no one had ever seen their teachers’ back. She had always had everyone in her view and hadn’t wavered in her vigilance, even when talking to first-graders. This amount of paranoia was not something you gained through training. It was almost like seeing her Grandfather after he had that dream of his.

  Her clothing made this even more obvious. It wasn’t good-looking, it didn’t even look like it was made for combat. It was ragged and mainly made of simple cloth that wouldn’t stop even a thrown dart. It was only when one looked more carefully that it became obvious that it was reinforced in very specific places. To be precise, everything that didn’t hinder her mobility was reinforced, and the entire thing was obviously reinforced to hell and b—

  A voice ripped her out of her considerations. “I know it’s still three minutes before class starts, but considering everyone is here, and I let you out early last time, I will start now, alright?”

  After agreeing (just like the rest of the class), Daphne looked to the front and saw that some books had appeared on a desk.

  “Please hand me your assignments, and then read through the first chapter here. I know it’s boring, but some theory is necessary so you understand the basics of what we will be talking about the rest of the class.”

  The woman collected all of the papers and then handed out the books to everyone.

  The title was The Paths to Power: A comprehensive breakdown, with no Author being named. She suspected their teacher had written it, but it didn’t matter.

  Upon opening the book, she saw that the first chapter was titled A rough summary of combat specialisations. It was 15 pages long, and every page was about one specialisation.

  It started by explaining how wizard specialisations were very rough, as most dabbled in multiple fields, so they were classified by their main field. It skipped over potions and similar fields and just named the four that were the main force on the battlefield. Namely, the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Charms and surprisingly Runes. It was only after reading the page on Runes that Daphne understood why it was among these others.

  The field of Runes may not be commonly affiliated with combat, but those who have seen a Rune Grandmaster in combat will understand this classification. For those who don’t, this is a simple explanation.

  Runes are immensely powerful compared to other fields. Their effects are similar to Warding, Potions or Alchemy in strength. Now, an uninformed person might be asking themselves: Why aren’t those fields here then, instead of or on top of Runes? This is easy to explain. Runes usually need a lot of time to make. Even more than the previous four (except Alchemy), but a Rune Grandmaster can instantly cast them. Wandlessly, wordlessly and faster than regular spells. They are, quite frankly, almost undefeatable. Luckily, they are also very rare, with only ten existing in recorded history:

  Odin, Gunnborga, Bragi, Laozi, Zhuge Liang, Parashurama, Thoth, Isis, Abe no Seimei and Azarynth Veyloran

  Regular Runemasters are pretty much useless in combat, but Runes are included due to the havoc a Grandmaster can wreak using them. Luckily, they haven’t been seen in over a millennium.

  She had to take a break from reading after that. This book implied that their teacher had been dead for over a millennium. So, since she was obviously not dead, there were only three other options. Either she had lived for over a thousand years, she had the same name as the person in the book, or the book was wrong. She would deal with it later. For now, she continued reading.

  The rest of the chapter talked about Cultivation, the Path of Knighthood, Prana, Bushido and shinobi no jutsu, which was interesting, but not nearly as relevant as the chapter on Runes. It was only on the last page that something interesting appeared.

  The Paths to power are far more numerous than what is in this chapter, or even in this entire book. There are more Paths than we have paper, considering that every powerhouse has created at least one new path. Whether on purpose or by accident doesn’t matter here. Luckily, very few of those so-called ‘Grandmaster Styles’ were long-lived, and most died out within a few generations. These paths are immensely powerful, but have incredibly difficult requirements to even begin learning.

  Despite these difficulties, there are a few styles that still exist. Here are the ones we know survived. Keep in mind, if you ever see a practitioner of these, you should avoid fighting them at all costs. Only an Archmage or someone of similar rank even has a chance to fight. Here are the Styles and an overview of their specialities:

  Mokuzai-ryu Karate-jutsu

  A special version of the no-maj martial art of Karate-jutsu. It uses a merger of the Path of Knighthood, Bushido, Prana and Shinobi no jutsu to support the martial art. Practitioners of this style possess immense power and are almost undefeatable in hand-to-hand combat. They also use a special style of wood magic that absorbs almost every supernatural energy. This, combined with their close-quarters abilities, makes them pretty much unkillable. A regular practitioner once managed to use guerrilla warfare to kill over seven hundred Archmage-level fighters that hunted him down. He eventually died of old age. (It is suspected this style was created by the Veyloran family, as Akagi Veyloran is the first known practitioner of this style.) This style has survived in the legacy of the Motobu clan.

  Marshal-style Anglo-Norman Swordsmanship

  A variant of the Path to Knighthood, mixed with Runes. Created by the legendary knight William Marshal. Immensely effective in combat and highly versatile. Used pre-made runes to strengthen the power of their Knight skills. Shines in large-scale combat. No wielder of this style has ever been defeated in a fight where they were outnumbered less than 500 to 1. This style is still practised in the German organisation W?chter des Friedens.

  The Sith arts

  A combination of all major styles of combat. Mainly centred around the Dark Arts, a corrupted version of the Bushido and the arts of the shinobi no mono. It is an art that is just as versatile and varied as magic, although it is somewhat inferior in the fields of charms and transfiguration, while being far more advanced in Divination and the Dark Arts. Sith are also capable of competing with even the Marshal-style in close quarters, due to their usage of what they call Battle precognition. This style was created by the Veyloran clan. (There are rumours that there once was a Jedi path as well, that centred around the light, but it is unconfirmed. What is known is that the version of the Veyloran clan is less dark than the regular path.) This style is still practised by the Sith Empire, which controls major parts of the international underworld and Eastern Europe.

  Veyloran Arts

  The art practised exclusively by the Veyloran Family. It is a combination of every style they have created and was once acknowledged as the strongest of all styles. It was believed to have died out, but a few days before this book was published, the Gringotts vault of the Veyloran family was claimed, and as such, this heir would have access to the style. There is nothing we know about this style except that it uses runes to great measure, and has the capabilities of the Sith Arts, Mokuzai Karate-jutsu and all of the fifty other paths the Veyloran family has created. (We have suspicions that the person who returned is, in fact, the 1st Veyloran clan head. This is because the clan’s inheritance was very well recorded, and as such, we know there is no heir to the bloodline. On top of that, it was widely acknowledged that Azarynth Veyloran was immortal. It was only after her disappearance that this was no longer seen as a fact, and over time she was forgotten.)

  The end was a shock. No, the whole thing was shocking. Azarynth Veyloran was their teacher’s name, and she had memories from a time long gone. If such a fight were to happen in recent years, they would undoubtedly know about it. She would definitely have to consult her family about this. If the contents of this book were true, it would mean they had such a legend as a teacher. Of course, it was also possible she was just sharing the name or lying, but her experience made Daphne doubt it.

  “Alright. I think everyone is done now. If not, please tell me.” All hands stayed down. “Now, here are your assignments. Please get agitated after the class, not now, alright?”

  She handed them their assignments back before going back to the front of the room.

  “Now, with that done, we will continue watching the memory we watched during the last lesson. This time, there will be fewer breaks, and you are instead expected to take notes on everything you spot. You are to pay attention to mistakes, strokes of genius, tactical changes and other interesting things you spot. The more the better. I will only stop it at major points, and we will be discussing everything that went down before that whenever I do.”

  They appeared at the same moment, where they had stopped the last time. The fight had started not even a minute ago, but the skill of both sides had already been made obvious. The Ashen Harvester’s ridiculous strength and the coordination of his opponents had both been shown already. Both sides knew it would come down to a battle of attrition, and they had prepared for it. Or the attackers had. The Ashen Harvester hadn’t. He was just relying on his strength. This arrogance would be his downfall.

  That was Daphne’s opinion of the situation last time the lesson had ended. Now she saw more.

  The Alliance, as she’d come to call them, was obviously fearful. They believed they would lose, and just fought because they saw no other alternative. None of them believed they would win. Except for one group. Well, two if you counted the Black Block, but they gave her a really bad feeling, so she didn’t. The Reapers were confident, or maybe resolved, she couldn’t say for sure.

  But ignoring the three major factions here (The elves, the Black Block and the Reapers), no one seemed to be here to fight. It seemed like they were ready to break away the moment something went wrong. This meant half of the combat force was not trustworthy. Neither was the black block, which left a bit over a third that would stay if it went badly. And that was if the Black Block didn’t actually backstab the leftover fighters, which she suspected they would.

  In conclusion, while she thought the Alliance would win, last time, she was now pretty sure they had already lost, and even knew it.

  Their only chance to win were possible reinforcements, but it didn’t seem like they expected any.

  ‘Wait! Professor Veyloran said she and two other retired masters arrived to save the day! That means they will get reinforcements after all. Or maybe they avenge the group? That would be one hell of a lesson. No matter your strength, you can still be late? Or maybe, always expect the unexpected? That would make sense. We are in this expecting to see how strategy defeats a superior opponent. It would have quite the effect if they actually lost. Especially if it’s through backstabbing. She’s supposed to teach us how to defend ourselves, and vigilance is like literally the core of that.’

  Such considerations went through her head, while the class just saw the still-frozen image of the fight. This had no doubt been done, so they could remember the last lesson in detail, before they needed to focus on strategy.