The NPC tapped it's foot impatiently. "You're hesitant to fight me?" it laughed scornfully. It warped it's graphics slightly, and became a man wearing smooth blue and black armor with long, spiky blue hair. His eyes were completely black, and had the aura of black dots that signified AIDA.
"As if. Whatever you are, I hope you're prepared. Skeith!" Haseo roared, and in a quick flash, the area was enveloped in Avatar Space and Skeith hovered over Haseo's spot.
"Well well, just like Magus." he commented.
He snapped his fingers and was immediately out of Skeith's view. The Avatar responded quickly and summoned his scythe and spun around searching every bit of his vision quickly.
"Ah ah, you won't find me that easily." The AIDA said, appearing behind him, a small sword drawn. He slashed at Skeith just as he knocked him away, causing the AIDA to stagger back to his feet. "Faster than Magus, I see." He commented.
"Magus? Don't tell me you're-?"
"Am I? I could be." he smiled devilishly. "Yes, yes, I attacked Magus. Looks like he already warned the rest of you pretty quickly as well. Well then, let's skip the formal fighting, and get straight to business." Rutilus smirked and warped his coding into a lobster-like form.
Skeith backed up from him and sent a wave of energy at Rutilus, who clashed with it with a wave generated from a slash of his forearm. However, he was quickly surprised that the power behind Skeith's attack was more than he bargained for, and had to dodge halfway in his counterattack. The lobster's feelers extended out, each one surrounded by an electrical current.
The two feelers lashed out wildly and Skeith had to maneuver it carefully but the two whip-like feelers were all over the place and he was stuck several times before he slashed off one of the feelers entirely. It faded, but the feeler regenerated at the base.
"Come on, Magus was stronger than you!" Rutilus harassed. With surprising speed, the giant lobster AIDA was on top of Skeith and hit him on the head with his left claw, followed by another blow to his right with his other claw.
Skeith groaned as the lobster pummeled him, but when the barrage stopped, he flew away from the AIDA and sent a rain of bullets on it until the entire AIDA was surrounded in a cloud of shattered data, and even then he continued to shoot it and sent several waves from his scythe at the lobster.
Skeith paused, waiting on Rutilus' next movement. The pause was horribly long as Skeith's patience was starting to run thin. Then, as soon as he would have given up, a small disturbance in the smoke caught his attention. It took a couple seconds before he realized that the smoke cloud was growing even larger, and within a couple seconds, the cloud burst to reveal the same AIDA, however, this time it was even large than before, dwarfing Skeith even further.
"What the hell are you?" Skeith asked.
The AIDA considered him by opening it's blue claw. "I'm just a virus." his voice resounded. The mouth piece around the lobster parted, and the PC connected to some sort of chord appeared. "Oh, that's right, you're only used to fighting weaklings." he laughed. "Well now, I guess I'll have to inform you of how powerful we can be." the PC retreated back into the mouth and dissolved before the mouth piece set back together.
The claw reopened and a huge Kobold laser charged in the center. Skeith only had a second to realize the situation but made good use out of it; he completely dodged the attack and the swipe that followed it, sending another barrage of bullets at Rutilus. However, the attack appeared to do next to nothing against the carapace, and the AIDA continued its attack as if nothing happened.
Skeith nimbly ducked and weaved through the lobster's swiping claws, growing accustomed to the recovery time the AIDA took to prepare another attack. He timed his attack, and just as the AIDA sent another swipe, he dug the blade of his scythe under the joint's split in the armor. For good measure, he shot a couple bullets in the gap as well before backing away. Sure enough, that attack dealt damage to Rutilus. When Skeith checked the health remaining though, he noticed that it barely dealt any damage compared to the vast reserves of health left. He checked his own health, and sure enough, he too was taking quite a beating.
Skeith, isn't there anything else we can do? We're getting our ass handed to us! Haseo complained. Skeith took a second before responding. I can certainly feel that. But I can't get through to anyone else; it seems as if this AIDA transferred us to a private server. Not only that, but compared to when we first started this fight, he's been getting stronger and stronger.
"You need a moment to think already? Man, I guess we are too much for you. Ah, well, I still have free time, so I might as well have some more fun. Don't worry, I'll wait." Rutilus said, warping his coding to his PC form. He legitimately sat mid-air, waiting for Haseo to come up with a plan. "Oh, but whatever you do come up with, chances are you won't get very far." He warned cheerfully.
Damn him for being so confident. Haseo cursed. So it was true, the AIDA could pretty much turn into whatever he felt like. Size wasn't an issue, as he demonstrated, and anything with a shell was nearly impossible to break through. Wrong. Before Rutilus grew, we could have cut through the armor, but we couldn't after. Skeith corrected. What about his current size? If he grew smaller, than that means he's weaker? Haseo asked his Epitaph. I thought so too, but he's currently still as powerful as he was before he reverted back to a PC.
Haseo leaned back. He cursed his lack of ideas, and his inabilities to get any help whatsoever. However, he fought plenty of AIDA before, this one was just stronger than the rest. "Oops, look at that. Sorry Skeith, but I gotta run." Rutilus said, checking something. "But ya know, it wouldn't serve much of a purpose to just let you off Scot-free." He said, drawing his sword. He dashed through the air, slashing Skeith in his shoulder faster than Skeith could react, dealing a massive amount of damage before waving at the stunned body of Skeith and stepping into a purple portal. "Sorry, but next time I probably wont be taking it easy on you." Rutilus said before vanishing.
Skeith immediately was disconnected from Haseo and he fell down to his knees. He coughed a few times as the Avatar Space receded and a torrent of flash-mail was received from Yata. He checked and saw that Yata had constantly sent him a wave of flash-mail trying to contact him. Haseo sent a quick flash-mail explaining that he had just fought the same AIDA as Magus had, and had to recover from the fight. Haseo sighed and logged off, already weary of the day.
The Guild the Epitaph Users called GU was a fairly tough guild to hack through, but Terrapene made his way into the very chamber that their leader resided. In Aina's form, he was incognito amongst the players, but since Aina wasn't a part of GU, The Prophet's User was thoroughly surprised when he entered.
Immediately, Yata was curious of how Ovan's little sister had found the Serpent of Lore. "Aina? How did you get here?" he asked. He knew that he never even gave her a pass to GU before.
Terrapene didn't even try to sound like Aina, and instead blatantly answered. "Nope. Not her."
Yata stared at him for a second. He seemed to recognize the change in name and addressed him. "Aina(T)? But you have the same PC as Aina." Yata suddenly realized that he wasn't facing a regular PC and his weapons appeared at his sides. "Who are you?"
"Relax…" Terrapene grumbled. He sat down in a very unwomanly form, but he regarded Aina's integrity and pushed her skirt so it wouldn't reveal anything. "I'm Terrapene, an ally of yours. I believe you've met Striatus before, so I shouldn't be that much of a surprise to you." he said.
"What about Aina? What did you do to her?" Yata asked.
"She willingly gave me her PC. She's offline right now, resting, and I have control of her PC so I can blend in. You wouldn't believe how much my PC form distracts and attracts people." he sighed. "Anyways, that's not what I'm here for. Consider me a diplomat for AIDA. You should know what we want to accomplish-"
"Reviving Aura?"
"-and we need your cooperation to do so. Something's out there that's working against us, though, and you'll need our help more than ever now that they're taking action. What do you say, will you join forces with AIDA?" Terrapene crossed Aina's arms.
Yata wasted no time in answering. "I thought we already joined up with you when we teamed up with Striatus."
Terrapene hummed. "Kind of… not really… you haven't done any real favors for AIDA when you reset the network." he paused. "Oh, but if you do anything stupid like you did last time, most of us will see fit to reject you."
"Well then, I think it goes without saying that if we're already on Striatus' side, than we should already be a part of AIDA as a team."
"Just what I wanted to hear." Terrapene stood up, but Aina's PC started to warp and logged off, leaving a tall male with a smooth face and long green hair, wearing green and brown armor, and underneath were earthen colored robes that flowed freely from underneath the armor. Just as Terrapene had said, the PC would draw in a lot of attention, as it wasn't one a type that you could choose to play with. Not only that, but a huge sword was attached to the PC, a weapon that wasn't normal: certain parts of the blade were transparent, and it was joined of several pieces: a buster sword.
Yata was genuinely surprised at the sudden appearance of the PC. "So this is your PC?" he asked.
"See how it's attention drawing?" he said, his voice hinting disgust as he waved the robes around. "That's why I'm using Aina's PC for now. I thought you should be aware that most of the strongest AIDA tend to have human, or PC form." he warned.
Yata nodded as Terrapene returned to Aina's PC. "Yes, Magus warned us that an AIDA called Rutilus could shift shape. But any powerful AIDA can have a basic human form?" he asked.
Terrapene nodded, then waved him off. "Tell Striatus that I've come by. That ought to make him happy." he said as he vanished from the room.
Once again, Jikan found himself in Lumina Cloth, surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the many players. The server was busy like it normally was, but it was even more so today, so that even normal rank matches took a while to be processed and slightly even longer to even participate. So while Jikan took his time waiting for his matches by watching others or simply just talking with others.
One PC caught his attention as the matches progressed, SaitoIkari. A Blade Brandier, he was at level 150, so he was one of the few that were expected to put up a good fight at the end. He fought solo, and even when facing three other high-leveled players, he held his own and deftly took out his opposition.
After a few more matches, Jikan checked the tournament rankings and found that he had just enough points to be allowed in, which meant that sooner or later, he'd be receiving challenges. On the other side of the tourney tree, SaitoIkari was practically in the opposite bracket as he was, and resting in the center was the focus of attention, Haseo.
Nostalgia started to hit him hard as the familiarity of the situation came back to him. He couldn't believe that he was actually trying to become the Sage Emperor again just because some girl who he had almost no attachments to. Now when he thought about it, Alkaid did say that she'd be watching him, so maybe in the next match he was in he'd try to look for his 'stalker' in the stands.
A ring announcing a flash-mail sounded, and found that the first round of the Sage Palace tournament was beginning in a few minutes. Jikan stretched his limbs and warped to the waiting room for his first match.
Alkaid had sat in the seats the entire time that the old Sage Emperor had been participating. Her old role model, the shining star which she had aspired to surpass on her own had appeared in front of her with no title, no fans, and no fame. Everything that he had once been was gone, but that wasn't what made Alkaid angry at him. What did make her irritated was that he was happy that no one was clamoring over him anymore.
In all reality, she was jealous of him too. He was forgotten to The World, while she still got looks of how she was once an Emperor and how she had lost so easily. He was forgotten and he didn't care, in fact, he enjoyed being a nobody. He just let go of it, something she couldn't do. Once again, he was ahead of her in another way, not only in gaining power, but willingly letting it go as well.
In battle, however, Jikan was as deadly as ever, with the same grace and precision that made him the Sage Emperor to start. She knew somewhere inside of her that he'd be facing Haseo.
To be truthful, she felt strange whenever she watched Jikan ever since he reappeared. At first she pinched herself to make sure she wasn't sleeping, then she logged off to process the information. The first time she saw him, he had completely disregarded her, even told her to improve herself. Well, now her she was, and he still had the same feeling as before.
Even after loosing to Haseo, she didn't feel quite as confused as she was to Jikan's attitude. Then again, she didn't even know of Haseo until she fought him, but he did rescue her. Then there was Atoli, and even she could tell that he was lovey-dovey with her. A part of her wondered if the confusion was wreaking disaster inside of her because of him. Did she love him? No, that couldn't be the case. She only knew him from his fights and his fame. To call that love was pushing that boundary a lot farther than it could stretch.
Still, Alkaid followed the Adept Rogue's matches until the first round started. The Emperor match had actually been moved ahead of schedule because for some reason, there were less contenders this time around. Instead of the next Monday, it would be the upcoming Thursday - only two days away. Two days until she'd challenge Jikan herself. Two days until she'd try to surpass the spotlight.
Alkaid sighed and watched the current match. It was some guy named SaitoIkari, and he was doing fairly well this time in the tourney. With his skill, he'd probably fight Jikan at some point, but she could see that Saito's skill was less than Jikan's. He was slower than him, and his movements were too mechanical.
Which brought up something which Alkaid had suddenly remembered. How was Jikan able to sit on the bridge at Mac Anu? Then again, she never tried to sit on the edge, so maybe you could do that and she just never had the drive to try it.
She shook her head, she was distracting herself again. Saito had won another match; it looked as if he was going to stay on the board for a little longer. She jumped in her seat a little when she realized that Jikan was back out, clashing blades with a challenger. It seemed as if people were finally realizing that the old Sage Emperor had returned.
"-and on this corner, you might not remember him, but he's no one less than the returning Ex-Sage Emperor…" the commentator paused, "Jikan! It seems as if he really had deciding to fight the tournament by himself! What do you think about this, as an Ex-Sage Emperor yourself?"
The guest commentator spoke up. "Yes, it might even be noble that he's trying to take his old spot back by himself. Even though he never showed up during our match, it looks as if he's come back to avenge his mistake. This could be interesting when if he manages to fight Haseo." Taihaku said.
"Well, it looks as if they've already started!" the commentator announced as Jikan and the other player, someone named Isugi X, clashed blades. The two other members were in the back, both healers and were giving Jikan a hard time due to the constant healing on their side. Alkaid leaned closer to the match.
On one hand, if Jikan attacked the healers, the other would heal the victim and the fighter would attack Jikan, but if he attacked their attacker, than the healers would throw out healing spells like crazy. Jikan stepped back from the other two and swapped his weapon to his scythe.
Nimbly avoiding Isugi, he snuck into the hole between the two healers and spun his scythe around like a maniac, dealing damage to both healers at the same time and kept Isugi away. Both healers were in constant recoil from the damage, and with a few seconds, both of Isugi's party members were defeated. Isugi brought up a menu to use an item, but Jikan ran up to him and kicked him down. He said something, but Alkaid couldn't tell what it was, but she assumed it a victory line. The next attack was a critical strike and the match ended. He sighed before he was warped out of the arena. For a moment, their eyes connected, but Alkaid wasn't sure if he was actually looking at her.
Alkaid stretched her arms and logged off to do her daily rituals. Chika's persona on The World probably needed a break anyways, and regardless, she had to do homework anyways. Still, she wouldn't give Jikan a break now that he was back, and when he won, like she knew he would, she'd be the one to be there right when he won demanding to surpass him.
Synaethasia was preparing to move from his usual lair to search for a powerful potential ally. Since Rutilus had returned, he had sensed the presence of this warrior, and if he wasn't active already, then he'd definitely make him join and put him to good use.
Nex was within the domain as well, in his large dragon form, in standby mode so that he could process spare data and calculate various things. Synaethasia gave no mention to Nex that he was leaving and simply took the black orb delicately in his hands while opening a portal to leave.
In the vastness of the network, he began his search to narrow the location of the AIDA in particular. It took several minutes, but in a large and unused area of the Internet he found him. Following a specific route that would not alert his potential ally, he was bore down on him with several minutes.
Surprisingly, with an AIDA of the power that he exerted, the network coding around him was rather stable for it's original code, and it was only slightly deteriorated from his presence. However, it was impossible to deny his presence as well. He was difficult to make out even to Synaethasia's eyes, but the orb he held pulsed in resonance with the AIDA somewhere around him.
He scanned the area thoroughly until he came upon a small crack in the server, and when he exploited the data, he found that in the large cavern of data the AIDA rested. The AIDA was in a PC form, probably either unable to change into a more aggressive form, or he disposed of it long ago. The PC, a male, had light green hair that reached well past his back, with three locks of hair on the side of his face shooting away. He only wore flowing black robes that fluttered in non-existent breezes.
The eyes of the man opened and they looked down on Synaethasia. Unlike most other AIDA, his eyes were green as well. While he was curled in fetal-position, he didn't seem to feel the need to move, and instead waited on Synaethasia to make the first move. The eyes stared down even harder on Synaethasia when he grew impatient of only a few moments.
Synaethasia, with the orb well secured, gave a slight bow to the AIDA. "Good morning… Exe."
The man called Exe lessened his stare and gave a nod so slight one could have completely missed it. "What do you want?" he asked.
"As you know, the peaceful annoyances grow stronger and threaten to wage war on us. I want you to become my subordinate in this war." he said.
Exe slightly uncurled himself. "You are brave for ordering me around. What if I said I didn't want a part of this?" he asked coolly.
"But you wont say that." Synaethasia replied. He smiled as they continued to stare at each other.
Suddenly, Exe laughed, something that sounded like grating steel. "I like you. But if you think I'll follow your every order, you've got another thing coming." Exe laughed.
Synaethasia's eyes revealed no emotion as Exe straightened up and fell to his level. "Follow me then, I want you to do something right away." he said as he led Exe back to his layer.
"What is that? The orb, which you hold." Exe suddenly asked, his attention obviously not focused on Synaethasia's words.
He was silent for awhile before answering. "This is something I hold very dear. This is the key to my plan." he said, then drifted to silence. Exe noted that and after shaking his head at him fell silent as well.
