Outpost Helios expanded silently in orbit, like a black moon watching the world below.
Inside, the Strategic Hall lit up with new icons four new missions.
Zack stood at the center, surrounded by 216 enhanced wizards, each silently connected through the neural network.
> "The Flamels have engaged.
Now the remaining four must be approached."
The hologram shifted, displaying four locations on Earth each pulsing with unique magical signatures.
Not allies.
Variables with significance.
TARGET TWO THE ORACLE
Location: Delphi, Greece
Status: Active Divination Nexus
Name: The Pythian Heir
A woman living in the ruins of the ancient Oracle descendant or anomaly, no one knew. Her predictions appeared in global magical history like warnings from the universe itself.
She had no wealth.
No political entity.
Recorded alliances.
Only prophecy.
Three enhanced envoys prepared specialists in psychic shielding, emotional neutrality, and metaphysical logic.
As they prepared to teleport, Zack spoke:
> "She already knows you are coming."
They vanished.
And far away in a ruin older than language a woman exhaled and whispered:
> "Finally."
TARGET THREE THE SPELLWRIGHT
Location: Tibet Forbidden Peaks
Status: Presumed dead for 300 years
Name: Master Jian Shen
His spellcraft predates Hogwarts.
He wrote magic before magic wrote books.
Runes that bend gravity.
Words that alter probability.
A logic of magic older than wands.
Two envoys former scholars of runic arts were assigned.
Zack instructed:
> "Approach as students.
Not emissaries."
One of them hesitated.
"Because of respect?"
Zack shook his head.
> "Because arrogance is the one thing he will never forgive."
They nodded and teleported into blizzard winds nobody living had walked in centuries.
Somewhere in the storm, a lantern lit itself.
TARGET FOUR THE HEALER
Location: Amazon Rainforest
Status: Unknown Tribe, Hidden Sanctuary
Name: Amaira of the Seven Veins
Her healing wasn't magic as wizards understood.
It was a fusion of soul-resonance, life force, and biologically amplified magic.
She could regrow a lost limb without wand, without potion with a single touch.
Five envoys were deployed three medical specialists and two empathy-calibrated negotiators.
Zack's final instruction to them was different:
> "Do not convince her.
Heal with her."
Then they disappeared into dense emerald shadows.
Somewhere inside the jungle, animals grew silent.
Not in fear.
In anticipation.
TARGET FIVE THE MEMORY ENGINEER
Location: Unknown signature scattered across five nations
Status: Mobile, unpredictable
Name: Dr. Elias Murrow
The world believed him dead after an explosion in London.
He wasn't.
His magic allowed him to split, store, and transmit memory between bodies not clones, but memory vessels.
A walking archive.
Man who was never entirely in one place.
Zack selected only one envoy for this target the wizard whose mind was once the most dangerous.
The man stiffened.
"…You're sending me?"
"Yes."
"Because I'm disposable?"
"No," Zack replied, "because you understand him."
A long, complicated silence.
Then with controlled acceptance:
"…Understood."
Teleportation initiated.
Somewhere across the world, in a city alleyway, Dr. Elias Murrow paused mid-step and turned, as if someone had finally caught up to him.
INTERSECTION OUTPOST HELIOS
Once the final envoy vanished, the chamber dimmed back to operational mode.
Zack processed the global operation in real-time:
> CONTACTS DEPLOYED: 5
RISK LEVEL: VARIABLE
STRATEGIC OUTCOME PREDICTION: 61.7% SUCCESS
(adjusting with every observed detail)
One enhanced wizard approached, bowing slightly.
"Do you expect them all to accept?"
Zack paused analyzing.
Then answered:
> "No."
The wizard frowned.
"Then why invite them?"
Zack looked toward the Earth calm, certain, evolving.
> "Because refusal reveals truth just as clearly as acceptance."
A moment of silence heavy and meaningful.
Then he added:
> "And regardless of outcome…
they will shape what comes next."
Last Line
Below, across continents and ruins and ancient power:
Five paths had been opened.
forces contacted.
destinies disturbed.
The world did not know it yet
but this was the moment history stopped moving forward…
and began branching.