Uri stood alone on a plane that was mostly foreign to him. In front of him stood five mages and their grunts, the fingers of the Hand of Reality, he had already met the thumb of the hand of reality but never the 4 others, "You have come to defy us," The tall and slender man in the middle of the five spoke first, "I must say, it takes quite the courage to attempt to put a wrench in our plans," The mage looked at the men and women in front of him then to his sides, "Maybe we should introduce ourselves, it would be more fitting for you to die knowing who your enemies are than die without knowing."
"We have already met," Vertigo's booming voice came quickly after the middle mage had stopped talking, "I am Vertigo Orves, the thumb of the Hand of Reality," His tattoos began glowing red. A smaller figure on the other side of the five spoke up in a squeaky and boyish voice.
"I am Elvas Koldor, the small finger of the Hand of Reality," Uri stood silently as the sandstorm that had kicked up before his arrival kept them confined to a makeshift, natural arena.
"I am Jennifer Judro, the index finger of the Hand of Reality," The woman next to the thumb spoke up. She was taller but not slender or built as the two men either side of her. Uri didn't say anything as he awaited the final two presentations.
"I am Gilven Joren, the ring finger of the Hand of Reality," He grinned as Uri thought of the similarity of the name the criminal mage had compared to the name the librarian of Mage Haven had before Gilven reminded Uri of the reality of his name, "Nothing to do with your librarian, boy."
"And finally, I am Avedis Kovko, the middle finger of the Hand of Reality," The tall mage gestured to Uri for him to present himself, "I know Vertigo has already spoken to us about you, however I wish to hear the name of the mage who will destroy magic as we know it."
"I am Uri'ost Geldic, 6th chief of the Geldic tribe," He shouted, making the 5 mages look at each other confused, "I am here to end your rebellion against magic and quell your attempts to attack magic's heart!" His bold statement got a laugh from Avedis who pointed and laughed, unable to formulate a sentence as Uri removed the top of his uniform, leaving him in his pants and revealing the war paint that had been hidden under his clothes.
"You are really a bold child, Uri'ost, I wouldn't have expected one man to rise and fight an army."
"One man?" He replied with a smirk as he began casting an Oik spell, "You must be mistaken," With the final gesture, multiple portals appeared out of thin air and out walked fully fleshed out members of his tribe, "This is my army," He put his arms out as he was joined by all 6 generations of his family's tribe, "The Geldic tribe," Avedis grit his teeth.
"This world must be overflowing with magic," Uri's father commented, "We have full physical forms."
"It is Krono-Pontis, father, the bridge plane," The older man nodded. Uri put his fist up and the rest of his ancestors did the same, they were going to war, not to kill magic as some of them had done in the past but to save it.
"I feel like we will need to split up to deal with this," The squeaky voice of Elvas broke the hand's silence. The four other mages nodded, "I assume you want to take Uri'ost, Avedis?"
"Absolutely," He grinned, "You all figure it out," He turned around and began walking through the wall of the sandstorm, "We will meet up once this is over."
"What do you mean we are missing someone?" The headmaster shouted at one of his teachers, "Who? Is it Uri?" A nod made him sigh deeply, "Do we have any idea of where he went?"
"No, Headmaster Solven, however he found two messages on his desk in his room," The headmaster hastily took note and began reading it, "It isn't his writing, how did this get into the academy?"
"There are no records of it, Benjamin," Jeremy replied, "The Hand of Reality or whatever are either connected or have a way to get in without being seen."
"The latter option is very possible," He dismissed the head of security's worry, "They are not after the students, they are after Uri and it seems they have him now," He explained as he read the note written by the young life mage, "Everyone who is not a cleared member of magic research, I will ask you to return to your duties and ensure that no other students are missing on the lists."
"What is this about, Benjamin?" Damia asked as only the heads of schools and the librarian were left in the room with the headmaster, "How bad is this?"
"In his note, Uri mentions Krono-Pontis, and so does the Hand of Reality's note."
"Let me get this right, the Krono-Pontis?" Roger asked, "How could either get there?"
"How does that matter right now?" Helden asked, "We have a battle happening in the doorway between our reality and the thing that holds it together."
"I have to agree with Helden," Julia commented, "We have one of our students currently waging a battle against an organization that is trying to reshape reality to their will, do you see the issue that is at hand?"
"I do."
"Enough arguments," The headmaster called them back to order, "Gilbert, do you still have those messages?" The librarian nodded, "I need a mage to head to each leader of the planes," The five heads of schools looked at their headmaster confused, "This is something that we will probably never see again and something we have never seen, back when the plane of Krono-Pontis was discovered along with the remnants of a search party that had apparently died 50 years from now, the leaders of the planes and I came to an agreement that, if needed, an emergency team of mages could head to the plane in order to attempt to salvage the situation, a suicide mission."
"We have mages who are willing to do that? Who are these mages?" Roger waved and smiled, "Roger?"
"They have sworn secrecy and are on call at all times," The librarian left the room, "We need a messenger for each plane and make sure to announce "In the name of magic, defenders stand," The heads of schools nodded and left, their duties being now more urgent than ever, "Uri, Uri, Uri, what have you gotten us into?"