Act of Foresight

Things had been quiet on a global front, with little being done apart from the silent readjustments to the new world that were still going on.  However, on a very small scale, a number of parties were busy in preparation for the future war.  Having been separated from her agent, the avatar of the archetype, Eris, had now taken it upon herself to carry out that tasks that she would have had the young Itami prince, Roun, undertake were they still bonded together.  Her first task went smoothly, that being the acquisition of the Eye of God artefact from a young Demai Psycher, John Blake, but even this young lady had to admit that this was more of a stroke of luck than a result of her extensive planning.  This next task would be rather different however.

Since her separation from Roun, Eris had been forced to develop her channelling abilities on her own, struggling much like the young Itami had to develop an ethereal form and an astral presence strong enough to execute techniques and realise the limitless potential stored within her vast Psychein presence.  Much like her previous agent Roun, Eris had quite the knack for form development, however unlike the young Itami she, her information wealth allowed her seriously accelerate the rate at which her power was growing.  Due to the unique way in which she had come into existence, Eris’ natural ethereal level and astral output was absolutely equal to that of Roun at the time of their separation, acting as the only limiter for the being that would otherwise be able to easily dominate any of the three deity class entities which were a product of Gaia.  Since their separation however, Eris had quickly surpassed her agent; her accelerated growth rate allowing her to far outlevel anyone who would have been considered to be within her level bracket at the time.  This accelerated growth ability was then only further compounded by her natural mastery over each of the universal energies which made up life force itself, allowing her to further emulate being at a higher level, and at times a higher tier than she really was.

Under normal circumstances, these abilities tended to over equip her for most tasks that she would have pursued, but unfortunately for the young avatar her task had been made far more complicated with the advent of the fusion.  Like the Eye of God, the God Slayer and the Wings of God had been the subject of Terran quests after the facilities which housed them had been discovered.  In the case of each of these quests, the artefact was turned in to the benefactor of the quest where it was kept safe by private Terran parties.  This was until the God Slayer was stolen, some weeks before the fusion, by a master thief of unknown origins.  This was in no way a set back to the archetype, and in fact it fit her plans all too well, but the action in itself proved to heighten the security employed to keep the Wings of God safe.  Once again, this was not much of a problem due to the nature and limits of Terran technologies, which would still have allowed Eris to infiltrate the facility on a spiritual plane and retrieve the device.  However, since the fusion, the benefactors of the previous quest had employed the help of a small Oyan clan to assist them in the protection of the holy relic, utilising their knowledge of the more mystical energies to erect spiritual and psychein barriers, which even an Ultimate teir channeler would find to be incredibly sturdy.  Eris sighed as she inspected the facility in the distance.

The frigid night air blowing across the Jin desert carried with it an omninous foreboding that was not lost on the young avatar, who was beginning to believe that this task might have indeed been out of her grasp.  But it was too late to turn back now.  Being the avatar of the archetype, Eris was privy to a number of natural abilities, without the need for a coded technique, and one of these abilities was a very accurate form of precognition.  She could see the string of wars in the near future that would precede the Great War, and she knew that if she was going to acquire the artefact before Heiarch or his agents could do so, she was going to need to do it tonight.  The young woman sighed once again, this would have been a perfect time to employ the assistance of the guardians, but in each probability which she could see, this own served to increase her chance of failure.  It seemed that Fate wanted her to do this alone.  Eris would take a deep breather as she pushed herself up off of the sands, straightening her back so that she was on her knees, before clasping her hands and saying a silent prayer.

“To my mother, Gaia, her mother Luminara and the almighty who hath spawned the Sedeverse from which we all have come: Guide my hand, mind and soul in all my endeavours so that I may not fail... and let it be so.”  She concluded before opening her eyes and focusing on the facility, vanishing from her location.

Back in Genaisa of all places, young Zadavia Moreno would feel an odd sensation travelling through her body as her form flickered in and out of existence, the result of a number of odd fluctuations of energies within her.  The process seemed to summon Ayane from the ether, projecting her usual ethereal presence into the world, but also, oddly enough, projecting a beam of Psychein energy directly into her before imparting a portion of what was previously Zadavia’s astral presence, directly into her as well.  The two beings hovered precariously as the energy transfer continued, drawing a great deal of attention from the Palace Guard as well as its occupants, causing a rush of channelers to their location as it all happened.

Among the most intrigued was Prince Maximillian ‘Shin’ Itami, who vaguely recognised the process, having witnessed a far less graceful version of a similar happening when his son was separated from the psychein wraith known as the Archetype.  Shin’s eyebrow raised now as he looked over to his wife, who didn’t seem able to draw the connection between the two events.  Shin shrugged inwardly, his wife’s psychic expertise were almost absolute, but her knowledge of the more complex inner workings of the ethereal world were only above average for a channeler at her level, so this was not necessarily a surprise for him.  What was a surprise for the young Itami however was the fact that, even with his Astral Awareness, he had never actually sensed anything particularly odd about Zadavia’s soul... it would seem that his mere astral dabbling simply was not enough for detect the complexity being such a character.

As Shin watched on now he, like all the others, witnessed the process come to an end; setting the two young women down on the ground in a semi-conscious state before the others could move towards them.  The first allowed to go through would be the medical staff of the palace, who’s first priority was to ensure that the two women were alright.  Shin watched as the rushed forward and used their abilities to dissipate the young ladies’ forms so that they had full control over them, before they began to examine them intensively.

Shin watched now as Naomi herself raised an eyebrow, an amusing action in of itself as it was a habit that he and all of his son’s shared.  Naomi, like Tesse and recently Argentis had spent a great deal of time with the young summoner, Zadavia, and they knew that like all other summoners, when Zadavia powered down her binding summon vanished.  This however did not seem to be the case at present.  This caused Naomi to further investigate the matter now, running a passive psychic scan as she attempted detect whether Ayane’s mind produced the signature of a summon or that of a channeler.  Shin watched as his wife’s puzzled look turned to one that was slightly more unnerving, as Naomi realised that her mental patterns seemed to be teetering on the brink, occupying the threshold between those two states.  This was all too odd.

Back in the Jin desert, Eris had made her way into the facility without encountering too much resistance.  Her natural abilities had allowed her to bypass all of the biometric scanning devices throughout the facility, while her summoned stealth abilities and persuasion allowed her to adequately infiltrate the facility without having to resort to violence to despatch her resistance more times than was absolutely necessary.  Like a theif in the night she would steal into the central most chamber, and remove the artefact, before powering up her own unique Omega Drive and vanishing from the facility completely with the artefact.

Much like the occupants at the Itami Imperial Palace, the occupants of the protective facility would be left to ponder exactly what had happened that night for days to come