Hansol sat up and rubbed his head in frustration.  It had to be at least 3 in the morning and he couldn’t get any sleep to save his life.  He stepped over Xero, who was snoring loudly, and made his way to the bathroom.  As he was washing his hands, he looked up at the mirror… but the face he saw wasn’t his own… it was the man from his dreams.

“You again!? Who are you!?” Hansol demanded.

“Hyukjae… my name is Hyukjae.  I am here to help you Hansol, for there is a battle coming in the near future… a battle that you cannot win,”

“What are you talking about?”Hansol asked, trying to hide the fear in his voice.  The man took a deep breath and after a brief flash of light, he was standing right in front of Hansol.

“President Kwon has sinister plans Hansol, and in order to help you I must unlock your full potential,” Hyukjae said as he grabbed Hansol’s hand.  Hansol felt a slight electric shock and he jerked his hand away.

“What did you do to me?”

“I unlocked your Ancestral Magic,”

“What the heck is that?”

“Ancestral magic allows you to access the power of every wizard that preceded you in your bloodline, including me,” Hyukjae said with a slight smile.

“You… you’re my ancestor?” Hansol’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“Yes, I lived over 2,000 years ago in Rome.  But I’m not only your ancestor Hansol… my brother Sungmin and I were the original wizards,”

Hansol’s jaw practically hit the floor.

“So you… you’re dead?”

“By now, yes, I have been dead for a long time.  What you’re seeing right now is an astral projection of myself, which I have managed to send into the future to assist you after learning of your conflict in a prophetic dream.  I tried to project myself directly into your mind, but that didn’t seem to work,” Hyukjae explained.  Hansol nodded; that explained the dreams.

“So you’re in Ancient Rome right now? That’s pretty amazing… your magic must be really powerful,”

“Indeed it is.  I do not have the same restrictions as wizards in your time.  Actually, I am the one who created those restrictions in the first place,”

“What!? Why would you do that? Shouldn’t every wizard be allowed to reach their full power?”

“No… I created the rules of magic to stop reoccurrence of my experience with my brother,” Hyukjae looked sad for a brief moment, but he quickly shook it off.

“What happened? I mean, if you don’t mind me asking,”

“Well, my brother Sungmin and I, along with our friends Donghae, Heechul, and Jungsu discovered a mystical artifact known as the Athenian Power Stone.  Upon touching it, Sungmin and I received magical powers, Donghae became the first lion and Heechul and Jungsu were the first dragons,” Hyukjae began.

“Wait a second… Kidoh used the Athenian Power Stone to fight us once, but it didn’t give him magic or turn him into a lion or dragon,” Hansol replied in confusion.

“That’s because Kidoh isn’t a descendant of Hercules, Perseus, or Alexandros.  Only those three bloodlines will be blessed by the stone, all others will receive great power, but will be driven mad as a result.  Such were the words of Athena, the stone’s original owner,”

“Wait, Athena the goddess!? She’s real!?”

“She was very real, but she was not a goddess.  She was a member of a precursor race that lived before humans.  They had great power and they created us to serve them, before they were wiped out… but that is a story for another day,” Hyukjae said; he clearly didn’t want to elaborate on that much more.

“Sure, go ahead with what you were saying before, about you and Sungmin,”

“After we received our power, Sungmin was corrupted by it… I couldn’t allow him to go on hurting people any longer, so the two of us battled on a Cliffside.  I was victorious, but I was forced to kill him… I tried to resurrect him by my mind was clouded; he returned to life, but as a twisted zombie creature that I was forced to kill again…”

Hansol was speechless.  He couldn’t imagine how he’d feel if he had to do that to Byungjoo.

“So I created the rules.  Only ten spells can be used per day, to prevent any wizard from gaining too much power.  Wizards can not directly use magic to harm each other, to avoid the emotional pain that comes along with it.  And the rules of life and death are not to be tampered with… no one should have to feel what I felt when I failed to bring Sungmin back,”

“Wow Hyukjae… that’s insane, I can’t believe you went through all that.  But I still don’t understand something, you said you unlocked my ancestral magic to help me deal with the president’s plans.  Can you tell me what exactly he’s planning?” Hansol asked.  He was desperate for more information.

“Unfortunately I cannot.  I can only see the future of my own bloodline, so I cannot see the president’s plans.  All I know is that in three weeks, this facility will be completely destroyed and you and the rest of the Order will be dead.

“Oh man, that’s not good at all… So if I have my ancestral magic, can I use it now? I don’t feel any different,”

“You must give it time to fully manifest.  Normally it would happen instantly, but since you’re wearing that infernal collar, it will take a bit longer.  When it’s complete, there will be a magical surge, and the collar will be destroyed,”

“Can’t you just get it off?”

“I have limited interaction with the physical world.  I’m sorry Hansol, you’ll just have to wait.  In the meantime, why don’t you and the others try to find out more information on what the president is planning,” Hyukjae suggested. Hansol nodded, and jumped in surprise when someone banged on the door.

“Hyung you done talking to yourself in there!? I gotta pee!” Byungjoo shouted from the other side of the door. Hansol sighed and turned back to Hyukjae, but he was gone… it seemed like that was all the information Hansol was gonna get for the night.

Hansol reluctantly left the bathroom, and Byungjoo rushed inside and slammed the door.  Just as he was lying down on metallic bench bed, an alarm sounded; the entry alarm.  There must’ve been a new arrival!  Hansol rushed to the window to try and get a good luck at who was coming in.  He gasped when he noticed it was Sohee and Hyeontae.

“Oh no, they managed to catch her,” he whispered to himself.  He noticed that they were being surrounded by some dragons from The Circle of Flames.

“Finally another woman! We could always use more chicks in this place,” said a tall, hairy man as he pushed Sohee against a wall and his lips.  Hansol was about to rush to her rescue when he saw Hyeontae kick the man in the side of the head, knocking him out instantly.

“Leave now, or I’ll kill you all,” Hyeontae ordered.  The attackers didn’t challenge them, they just picked up their fallen comrade and ran off.

“Sohee! Hyeontae! Over here!” Hansol called from the window.  Sohee looked confused for a moment, as if she didn’t recognize him, but then she smiled softly and ran over to the warehouse.  Hansol opened the door for them and welcomed them inside.

“This place is crazy... Who said segregation was a thing of the past? Anyways, I never thought I’d actually be happy to see you kid.  Where are the others?” Sohee said as she surveyed the room.

“Everyone’s asleep right now but I’m glad you two are here.  I mean, it that you got captured but maybe you can help us find out what the president is up to,” Hansol replied.

“What does it matter? As long as these collars are on us, we’re powerless,” Sohee rubbed her head in frustration and Hyeontae let out a guilty sigh.

“We won’t be powerless for long… I have a secret weapon.  But for now, you’ll have to help us, especially if you want the others to let you guys stay here,”

“He has a point Sohee… the others have no reason to trust us, honestly neither does he… but we have nowhere else to go,” Hyeontae said, trying to reason with his  older sister.

“Fine kid, we’ll help you,” Sohee said.

“Awesome, we’ll hold a meeting first thing in the morning,” Hansol said with a smile.  Finally they were going to formulate a plan.  For the first time in a while, Hansol actually felt like he had hope, and that was the best feeling in the world.