The loss of a peer who truly understood him was hard, but Satoru knew he couldn't mope around the balcony forever.
He had a duty now — one he didn't necessarily want, but one he had accepted nonetheless. He can't slither his way out from this.
Unknowingly, the sun was beginning to rise. He had been standing in that same spot since the previous evening, watching the light fade and now seeing it return.
Satoru wasn't a poet, but he couldn't help but smile wryly at the timing. The sunset marked the end of Saoirse. Now, the sunrise was marking the start of something new — a day where he was the one holding the line.
It was a bit cliché for his taste, but the universe seemed to love its theatrics.
'It's kinda like that phrase, 'out with the old and in with the new'.' Satoru thought.
After a bit more of just blankly staring at the sun rising. He took a deep breath and released the Himalayas air that filled his lungs.
He then muttered under his breath, but he infused the words with sorcery.
"Apprentices and Masters of Kamar-Taj, Masters of the London, New York, and Hong Kong Sanctums," Satoru's voice vibrated through the air. "I summon you all to the Main Courtyard within the hour… as your Sorcerer Supreme."
The message reverberated through the halls of the temple and echoed into the distant Sanctums across the globe, snapping every sorcerer to attention.
Shock, disbelief and denial, confusion, bewilderment laced the faces of those that heard Satoru's voice. Then… it turned to sadness, horror and grief.
Sorcerers from all over the globe began to open portals, scrambling to greet the new Sorcerer Supreme, but also hear what had happened with the Ancient One.
Satoru let out a long sigh. He didn't put his blindfold back on. Instead, he snapped his fingers.
Snap!
His casual everyday clothes vanished, replaced by a set of formal black sorcerer robes. Saoirse had given them to him years ago, but he didn't find the need to use it.
Now, it just felt right. And, he doesn't mind following protocol just this once.
[ IMAGE ]
…
[ Main Courtyard ]
As Satoru walked toward the center of the courtyard, the air was filled with the hiss and crackle of portals opening one after another. Masters and apprentices were pouring in.
Satoru hadn't even reached the center of the yard when a frantic set of footsteps approached him from the side.
"Gojo!"
Wong stumbled to a halt in front of him. He was out of breath, his robes still messy from the fight against Belasco's demons as he still hadn't changed. He looked at Satoru, his eyes immediately dropping to the black robes, then to Satoru's uncovered eyes, and finally, his gaze froze on the Eye of Agamotto hanging from Satoru's neck.
Wong's face went ghost-white. "The Eye... Satoru, where is she? Where is the Ancient One?"
Satoru didn't stop walking, but he slowed his pace just enough for Wong to keep up. His expression was uncharacteristically sober, his blue eyes reflecting the morning sun.
"I'll address that once everyone is gathered, Wong," Satoru said with a calm voice.
"But—"
"Not now," Satoru interrupted softly, glancing at his friend. "Just... get the apprentices in line. Make sure the Sanctum Masters are accounted for. I only want to say this once."
Wong swallowed hard, his throat tight. He had known Satoru for a while, but he had never seen him look so... somber. He nodded slowly, stepping back to follow the order.
By the time Satoru reached the middle of the courtyard, hundreds of sorcerers had formed a massive crowd.
Wanda and Illyana were there too, then Rintrah appeared beside them when he stepped out of a portal that had just opened.
The murmuring died down when Satoru appeared, all the people in the crowd gazed at him in his black robes.
Satoru stood at the center, the lone figure in black amidst a sea of gray, brown, yellow, and red robes.
"I think you all know why you're here," Satoru began, his voice carrying effortlessly to the furthest corner of the compound.
"Karl Mordo has betrayed us," Satoru stated. Wanting to get this addressed first before going on with the most important part.
Satoru didn't give them time to react to that since they've already knew, so he continued after a beat.
"He chose to break the oath we all swore. He sought power from the Book of the Damned and brought a Lord of Limbo to our doorstep. In his pride, he betrayed the discipline of Kamar-Taj and targeted his own brothers and sisters." Satoru's gaze swept over the crowd.
"He was a Master who forgot that our purpose is to protect, not to prune the world to fit a narrow vision."
He paused, the wind whistling through the silence of the courtyard.
"In the struggle to defend this temple, the Ancient One gave everything," he continued, his voice softening slightly but retaining its weight. "She fought until the end. Last night, the day after the fight, on the balcony overlooking the peaks, she chose to step down. She passed from this world on her own terms."
Tears began to fall from the younger apprentices. Several senior Masters bowed their heads, their shoulders shaking with silent grief. The atmosphere was heavy with the loss of a leader who had stood for centuries.
Satoru reached up and touched the Eye of Agamotto. The golden artifact hummed under his fingers.
"She entrusted this to me," Satoru said, the light of the morning sun catching the intricate carvings of the relic. "She chose me to carry the torch. I didn't ask for it, and those of you who know me know I'm not big on rules or 'tradition'. But I accepted nevertheless."
He stood tall, the black robes billowing around his legs. The playful, annoying teenager they knew seemed to have vanished, replaced by someone who looked like he could hold up the sky if it started to fall.
"I am Satoru Gojo. And as of this morning, I am your Sorcerer Supreme. We have a temple to rebuild, an order to heal, and a world that's bound to be probed by dimensional threats and the horrors from these dimensions that the Ancient One has kept at bay and deterred as Earth's protector all these years."
"Things are going to change," Satoru continued, his voice sharp enough to cut through the mountain chill. "The old ways were meant to keep the world protected. But that's not what I envisioned, it's simply not enough; What I envisioned is, instead of merely protecting, I'll make sure that whatever comes through Earth's door regrets it and will never come back."
He looked at the sea of faces, meeting the eyes of the veteran Masters who looked skeptical and the young apprentices who looked terrified.
"I don't expect you to like me. I don't even expect you to agree with how I do things," he said, a ghost of his usual smirk finally returning. "But I do expect you to do your jobs. We are the line between reality and whatever nightmare wants a piece of it. If you're with me, get to work. If you don't agree with me being your Sorcerer Supreme… the door's that way."
He gestured vaguely toward the main gates. No one moved.
"Good, you may now go. Masters of the Sanctums, stay behind. We need to talk about the stability of the Sanctums' protective shield."
Satoru wasn't kidding when he mentioned that the Ancient One had been protecting earth from dimensional threats whenever she's away from time to time.
She was seen as a deterrent because of her might. Now that she's gone, those that have sensed her disappearance would surely probe and see what's up with Earth's new Sorcerer Supreme.
And, Satoru planned to meet those that 'leaked' through the Sanctums' protective shield and make sure they won't ever think of coming back. Or, just get rid of them so the possibility would be none at all.
The crowd began to disperse, the heavy silence replaced by the low hum of conversation and the shuffling of boots on stone. Most of the sorcerers moved with a new sense of urgency, spurred on by the blunt, uncompromising tone of their new leader.
Wanda, Illyana, and Rintrah remained standing where they were. They watched as the Masters of the London, Hong Kong, and New York Sanctums followed Satoru in one of the hallways leading to the central hall of Kamar-Taj.
"Wanda," Illyana whispered, her hand still resting on the hilt of her Soulsword. "He's different. It's like he grew up ten years in a single night."
"He had to," Wanda replied softly. She couldn't take her eyes off him. The black robes made his white hair stand out even more, and without the blindfold, his blue eyes seemed to pierce through everything they landed on. "The world just got a lot bigger for him."
Satoru noticed them out of the corner of his eye but didn't turn away from the Sanctum Masters. He had work to do.
"You three," Satoru called out, gesturing to the Masters. "In the hall. Now. We're going to look at the planetary grid. If there's even a hairline fracture in the ley lane shield, I want to know exactly which dimension is leaking into ours."
As Satoru led the Masters toward the Inner Sanctum, he paused for a fraction of a second. He glanced back at Rintra, Wanda, and Illyana gave them a thumbs-up and a flash of his grin to let them know he's still the same Master despite his new 'promotion'.
Then, he was gone, the heavy wooden doors of the sanctum swinging shut behind him.
"Well," Rintrah suddenly said after a sigh. "I suppose Master Gojo— or, is it Sorcerer Supreme Gojo? Or is it just Sorcerer Supreme now? Whatever, I'll just still call him Master. Continuing on, I suppose Master Gojo wouldn't be continuing our foundation lessons from now on…"
Hearing that, Illyana seemed to have just realized it, her eyes went wide and she released a 'tch!' and muttered under her breath. "Darn it..!"
Wanda looked at the closed doors, her hand reaching up to touch the crimson pendant. The urge to tell him how she felt hadn't gone away, but she knew she couldn't tell him now. The Ancient has just passed after all. Going and telling him now might complicate things.
'I'll wait,' she thought. 'But I won't wait forever.'
...
[ Author's Notes ]: Stone me.
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