The Alliance

As the rains washed over Seina, the capital city of Serano and home of the Talon clan, the last of Nikolai’s guests had finally arrived.  Nilokai smiled at their presence, figuring that channelers like Jayce and Xavier were more likely to be late that the three young Itami princes.  But nevertheless, their presence was a good thing as they finally had everyone that would be needed, to carry out the most necessary of tasks.

“Greetings.” Nikolai sounded to the three Itamis as they arrived, before turning his attention back to Jayce and Xavier, who had both been somewhat annoyed by the length of time that the Ithree channelers had forced them to wait.

“Hey.”  The Itamis sounded in unison, before Roun surveyed the situation and spoke.  “You actually managed to get those two to come?”  He mused, actually somewhat impressed by Nikolai’s persuasive abilities.

“Well, admittedly, Xavier did take quite a bit of persuasion but Jayce was oddly obliging.”  Nikolai replied pleasantly, causing Roun, Ryuu and Xavier to look over at Jayce who just said nothing.

Knowning Jayce, Roun didn’t bother to push the situation, but Ryuu and Xavier couldn’t seem to leave it alone.

“Oh really?”  Ryuu inquired now, genuinely puzzled.  “What’s the deal Demar?”  He continued, causing Jayce’s gaze to shift towards him, expressing his usual level of disdain for the Itami.

“That’s right... you are... anything but cooperative.”  Xavier added rather nonchalantly, if not me I was sure that these noobs would have to drag you to this meeting in a state of reversion.”  He continued, still pushing the silent Jayce.  Nikolai just smiled.

“Was Synchros here, she would probably tell me that it was Dias that convinced him.”  Nikolai sounded, causing a visible change in Jayce’s disposition, with his disdain for Ryuu’s annoyance turning quickly to an even more genuine annoyance, no doubt at Dias’ own persuasive abilities.

“Annoying child...”  Was the only thing that would be audible in Jayce’s mumblings, causing Roun, Ryuu and Xavier to crack feint smirks, each of them having a profound insight into living with another entity in your mind.

“Was Synchros here???”  Setto now inquired loudly, drawing everyone’s attention to the youngest member of the meeting, causing the others to be quite puzzled, all except Nikolai who had been expecting the question.  “Where has Synchros gone?”  He inquired again, causing the others to now grasp the situation, pondering the same very question.

“She is just gone...”  Nikolai replied solemnly, for the first time showing an inkling of sadness, before his demeanor changed back to his usual pleasant appearance.  “But before she was taken, she bore good news.”  He continued.

“What good news?”  Ryuu inquired now.

“She was always rather intuitive...”  He smirked, as if remembering a passed love one.  “She used to tell me what she saw in her visions.”  He continued.  “During the fusion, she only had one vision, a recurring one... she said that she could see to the end of this world.”  Nikolai explained, causing Roun to look rather bewildered.

“And how is this good news?”  He inquired now.

“This world is an unstable and imbalanced one, one that is sick and poisoned with countless foreign energies.  She assured me that we would be rushing straight into a conflict...”  He continued, being interrupted by Xavier.

“This war with the Destroyers.” He said with great disinterest.

“Yes, and it is to be the final conflict.”  Nikolai smiled.  “She favoured our chances for victory.”

“And this was before she left?”  Ryuu inquired now, drawing a nod from Nikolai.  “Don’t you think that her leaving would kinda tip the scales though?”  He continued, trying to look at the situation realistically.

“I think you’re all missing the most important questions... what happened to Synchros and where is she?”  Setto interrupted yet again.

“The centuries had been cruel to her... that bastard Teros had been eroding her powers silently for years.  Had it not been for his awakening and dispulsion from myself, she would probably have faded silently, ceasing to exist before my very eyes and I would have never had a clue as to what was really transpiring.”  Nikolai explained.  “Unbeknownst to us both, Teros’ energy not only destroyed Synchros, but replaced her, allowing him to subtly influence her, and as a result me... when he was removed, the energy that was holding her fragile form together slowly began to dissipate.”  He continued.  “My battles with the Haiman did not help the situation either.”

“Whoa whoa... hold it... are you saying that we’re going into this war one guardian short?”  Ryuu inquired now, somewhat unnerved by the thought.

“Yes and no...”  Nikolai replied slowly.  “I am still in full possession of Synchros’ abilities, her presence has just ceased to exist.  I am the new Binding Guardian.”

Nikolai’s statement caused silence to fall over the group as they pondered the implications before Jayce finally spoke up.

“Whatever... we’ve still got the same powers at our disposal, nothing has changed.”  Jayce sounded now, oddly enough reassuring the others.

“Actually, something has changed... our knowledge of the full situation has grown.”  Nikolai replied.  “I’ve pondered this situation in great depths and I have come to a conclusion... that is the true purpose of this meeting.  I am sure that you all know of the ancient legends, the great battle between Synchros and Khaaos that would end the world... well my... unique situation sheds some light on that would-be truth.  However, if this is so, that is implies a second truth.”  He continued, turning his gaze to Xavier.  “I would not have you suffer the same fate as I.”

As he made the statement, the others instantly caught onto what he was getting at, including Xavier who wasted no time in powering up his form.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking, but keep your distance... or this entire place is going up in flames.”  Xavier replied now, summoning his natural energies and Khaaos about him.

“This place isn’t as fragile as the world you knew... that’s the reason I chose this as our meeting ground to begin with.”  Nikolai smirked, for the first time revealing a truly devious side.

A quick gaze at Setto would put the two Oyans on the same page, allowing Nikolai to draw his blade and swipe at Xavier, who easily dodged the wild attack.  This would give Setto enough time to complete his transformation into his draconic form and release a powerful mouth blast that crystalised Xavier’s feet.

Jayce just raised an eyebrow now as Roun’s Chaos Cutter impacted Nikolai’s form, sending him sailing cleanly into a wall, which oddly enough seem unaffected by the force of the attack.

“What the hell are you doing Roun?”  Setto inquired now, continuing in his attempts to stabilise the massive surges of energy that were now coming from Xavier, forcing Ryuu to power up his Lumina and Rush Xavier in an attempt to help dissipate his destructive energies.

“I’m sorry, X may be a dick but I trust him more than someone I’ve only ever interacted with once.”  Roun replied, standing between Nikolai and Xavier now.

“Always the bigger picture, eh Roun.”  Jayce sighed sarcastically as he powered up his form for the first time and walked towards the battlefield.  “So let me get this straight, one of these destroyers is in our boy X here?”  Jayce inquired now, causing Nikolai to nod as he began to heal the damage from Roun’s attack.  “So we dice up X and we get a jump on the enemy?”  Jayce inquired, powering up Dias as well as his other dimensional abilities.

“Don’t even think about it.”  Roun interjected, charging again.  “I’m all for ending this war as quickly as possible, but killing X like this is not an option.”

“You misunderstand our intentions Roun.”  Nikolai sounded.  “We will still need the aid of Khaaos in our battles against Teros, we just mean to separate Khaaos from Heiarch.” Nikolai explained.

“Less talking, more helping!”  Ryuu exclaimed as Xavier abilities began to spike, making it difficult for him and Setto to contain them without actively damaging the Unique.

“Okay fine, we’ll discuss your methods later... Jayce, you’re up.”  Roun sounded, turning his attention to Xavier and drawing his PSi-Flak Cannon before warping behind his acquaintance and blasting him to unsynch his energies.

“Whatever...”  Was all Jayce said as he powered up his energy to maximum and focused his energies on Xavier.

“Wait a minute, does he even know what he’s doing?”  Ryuu inquired, being unable to sense the difference between Xavier’s energies, Khaaos’ energies and Heiarch’s energies.”

“Unlikely...”  Nikolai replied, charging his energies as well.  “But I do.  I will counter the effects of the splitting where it affects Xavier and Khaaos, the rest of the energy should be Heiarch’s.”  Nikolai sounded as he concentrated his abilities now as well.

“Good... I can stop being careful then.”  Jayce smirked, engaging his R.E.D. trance and ripping Xavier’s energies apart with all of his ethereal might.

This forced Setto to help Nikolai by stabilising Xavier’s energies, while Roun and Ryuu just looked on to make sure that Jayce didn’t get carried away.  The group watched as a truly foreign energy rose up from Xavier, at first being formless before it seemed to realise what was going on.  Abandoning its passive mode, Heiarch’s energy seemed to become active, instantly creating a solid shell to contain its energies.

“He has not yet been fully awakened, this is our chance!”  Nikolai sounded as he powered up his Omega Drive.

Setto wasted no time either, powering up his Omega Drive as well, releasing the energy which he had been Power Saving into a massive Geon beam that solidified all of the energy around the Heiarch entity.  Roun and Ryuu wasted no time doing the same, both of them powering into their Omega Drives and using two exceptionally unique abilities.  As Roun slid forward and launched a powerful dashing attack, an odd white energy formed around him before he connected and transferred that energy to his opponent.  The energy seemed to burn up his opponent’s Astral, Ethereal and Psychic energies dissipating the entities Soul into, oddly enough, latent ether.  Ryuu’s attack seemed to have an opposite effect, converting the entities massive Astral, Ethereal and Psychic reserves into spectral energy, which was quickly lost to that realm.  As Jayce and Nikolai added their attacks to the mix, the weakened destroyer’s energy just flickered, lacking the necessary features to maintain itself.

For the first time now, they all understood profoundly how this war usually ended, looking towards the still stunned Xavier to finish it by dissipating their opponent’s energy.  Unfortunately for the group, Xavier would be in no state to launch his finisher, still being quite disoriented from Jayce’s less than graceful attempts at separation.

“Shit...” Roun cursed now, turning to Nikolai.  “You gotta take care of X, or he can’t finish this... Itamis, you guys are with me.”  He continued, powering up his Veranos to max, setting the entire energy concoction ablaze in hopes that it bought the others some time.  Ryuu and Setto would join in as well, but their attacks would not be as effective as they would have hoped.

The energy would begin to re-gather itself rather quickly, and though Heiarch would not be anywhere near fully reawakened, the group would quickly realise that simply ethereal abilities didn’t have a strong enough effect on the destroyer to deal serious damage.  In fact, had it not been for Jayce’s Omega Blitz splitting the remainder of the energy into two and flinging the two halves out of his area of influence, no one could predict the final outcome of this encounter.

As the six channelers stood there, Xavier’s wits slowly returning to him, they all turned to Nikolai; with the three Itamis shaking their heads, and Xavier still trying to make it back to reality, Jayce would once again be the one to break the silence.

“Ch... could have been worse.”  His statement would bring a small smile to Nikolai’s face before they all contemplated what their next action would be.