Hot Pursuit: Act I

Nikolai and Setto were content with the outcome of their previous activity, taking some comfort in the fact that the first battle of their war had turned out in their favour.  However, their Terran counterparts were not as pleased, preferring to hunt down the two fragments of Heiarch and put an end to the entity once and for all.  With the two being outnumbered by their terran counterparts, it seemed that the witch hunt was on.  The team of six split up into two groups, with Nikolai, Jayce and Xavier searching the west of Seina while the Itami trio took to the east.

Within each group, there was a primary scanner, being Nikolai and Roun respectively, while the others simply followed their lead until they managed to locate the entity.  Having waited three days since the incident, the group could not even be sure that the presence of Heiarch would still be in Seina, but they were determined to annihilate it if it was.

Having been released before he was fully awakened, the entity’s threat level was considerably lower than it would be when he was bonded to host or at his prime when on his own.  This gave the guardians an actual reasonable chance of defeating the entity, but Nikolai and Setto had heard too many stories about the resilience of these destroyers to get their hopes up.  The group would eventually find themselves travelling into the roaming lands in pursuit of the presence, but they would be unsuccessful in locating the entity.  Despite this, Nikolai could sense that something was not quite right.  His natural bond to the earth made him acutely attuned to its energies, allowing him to detect when things were out of whack, and that definitely seemed to be the case.

“Roun, can you sense anything?”  Nikolai inquired now over the communications link.

“Nope, nothing out this side...”  Roun replied.

“Yeah, I’m getting the feeling that this thing is long gone... we should probably have made our move earlier.”  Ryuu added, causing Roun to nod.

“What’s going on out on your side?”  Roun inquired now.

“I’m not sure, but I’m sensing an unnerving flunctuation in the natural ethereal and astral environment... something is definitely here but it doesn’t feel like the entity that we removed from Xavier.”  Nikolai replied.

“Weird...”  Was Roun’s only reply before an odd energy interrupted the link.  “Nikolai?  What the hell was that?”  Roun inquired now, but received no reply causing him to look at the other Itamis.

“What are you waiting for guy?  Go check it out, we’re right behind you.”  Ryuu stated now, drawing a nod from Setto that caused Roun to power up his Infinite Warp before vanishing from the area.

As Roun warped towards the area, he realised that he was thrown from his warp some distance from the other group, dropping out of the ether stream almost two hundred metres away from them to witness them allow looking around with generally defensive postures.   With his barriers about him, Roun began to fly towards his allies now, catching their attention as he closed the distance.  Oddly enough, he was arrive unhindered, allowing him to join the three at the centre of the anomaly and raise the question.

“What’s going on here?”  He inquired now, causing Jayce to look somewhat annoyed.

“I’m not sure, the ether in the area seems to be under the influence of some kind of foreign force... an entity that is clearly foreign to Gaia.”  Nikolai explained.

“Clearly...”  Xavier replied somewhat mocking.

“Can you figure out what it’s doing?”  Roun inquired.

“I’m not entirely sure; it’s either probing us or just toying with us.”  Nikolai replied, causing Jayce’s annoyance to grow.

“Can you sense where this entity is?”  Jayce inquired now, noticing as Ryuu and Setto made it into his limited sensory range.

“No, whatever it is, is way outside of my Sensory Range and my Area of Influence for that matter.”  Nikolai replied.

“Useless...”  Jayce replied, accepting that it was already outside of his own area of influence, which was probably the vastest among the entire group.

Realising that whatever this thing was probably vastly outclassed them, Nikolai wasted no time attempting to call for help, but even with his array of techniques and equipment, he found that it was simply impossible for him to get any kind of signal out.  It was only then that a voice echoed through the area.

“Who would have thought that the imposter could hand me everything that I’ve ever wanted.”  The voice sounded in an overly mused tone.  “It seems that the little one was telling the truth and the intuitive one was actually right... this will indeed be the last war.”  The voice sounded.

Instantly, Setto, Jayce and Xavier recognised the voice, no doubt due to the enlightenment by their guardian spirits.  The voice was unmistakably that of Heiarch, but this was not the entity that they had so recently released. This entity was much older and far more powerful, no doubt having been awakened in a previous war when the guardians failed to put him back to sleep.

“Guard yourselves, do not allow yourself to succumb to his manipulations...”  Nikolai sounded now, causing them all to activate their defensive techniques, each calling upon the might of their more senior souls to protect them, all with the exception of Roun.

As the young Itami looked around, he understood fully the extent of his predicament, realising that he would quickly succumb to Heiarch’s powers without the protection of Archetype’s unique power, making him as great a threat to the group as the entity itself.

“Okay guys, listen up, this is how it’s going to go down.”  Roun started now, charging his energy quickly.  “We’re clearly no match for this thing and the Talon Royal Guard have no idea what’s going on... so let’s kill two birds with one stone okay.”  He started, allowing his energy to reach its peak.  “I’ve got a foot in the grave as it is, so I’m going after it... while I’m getting pwned, it’s up to you guys to raise the alarm.”  And with this, the Itami vanished.

Once again, with his Infinite Warp activated, he scowered the area ethereally, exploding from the ether stream to activate his Omega Blitz, summoning his only energy type that could actually affect the entity and performing an all out crusher before the entity could sense that he had moved.  Despite it draining his form’s various reserves, the attack wasn’t even enough to break the entity’s first line of defences, but simply distracted the entity for the split second that was necessary for Jayce to abandon the others, dimensional warping out of the corruption field before Omega Flashing back to Seina to alert the Royal guard.

The second that he made it out of the field however, the ethereal noise would return in full effect, forcing the others to choose between either staying and shielding themselves or aiding Roun in his pointless attacks.  As expected, Ryuu and Stryke would waste no time following the Itami, forcing the two Oyan raised channelers to sigh and the generally illogical approaches of their allies.  Despite their protest however, they would not be far behind, finding themselves quickly into combat.  With their Omega Drives at full and their companion spirits channelling at the maximum capacity that their relatively weak forms could handle, they attacked the Astral Phalanx to the best of their abilities.  Unfortunately, with the entity which housed the soul of the junior destroyer Heirach possessing well over one hundred other unique, integrated souls it was no doubt that its control over ether exempted it from any effects that their energies would usually have on ethereal constructs.  In fact, even their Astral and limited Psychic abilities had no real effect, leaving them at the absolute mercy of this ethereal Deity.  The terrans amoung them could not help but compare the entity to Kyasho, with its absolute control over ether in the area rivalling Kyasho’s absolute mastery of the Zeta Streams in all their entireties.

As Jayce arrived in Seina, he was surprised to see the Talon Royal Guard already mobilising and preparing themselves to teleport into the fray.  “What the fu...” was Jayce’s first sentiment, but things only started to make sense when he felt an oddly familiar energy type eminating from behind the Royal Guard’s front lines.  As the first wave teleported, he saw a small blonde haired woman, emanating the same energy that had first unlocked Dias within him.  Jayce opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by the same woman.

“You show return to help your friends.”  She said, causing Jayce to scoff.

“They’re not my friends.”  Was his only reply before he stepped into the middle of the second wave and rode the teleportation field back into battle.

The resulting scene would be akin to a nest of ants fending off a rat, with Heiarch’s host vastly outclassing the waves and waves of channelers that now swarmed him.  Eventually, the noob rush would deter the predator enough to stop the assault, driving it from the Serano and leaving the current guardians relatively safe.  Once again, the six would be left to stare at each other, realising just how dangerous their new job was becoming.