Void of Stars

The Void of Stars is a realm cut off from the rest of existence by an ancient primordial. Very few can enter this realm and fewer can survive in the ever changing atmosphere. For one to be called here, their renown should be great and their skill greater lest they fall to the trials present within the broken, divine realm. Should the realm reappear to the rest of existence, a calamity tied to the fates of Aether, Nether, Divine and Forsaken is imminent.

EX 000: Phantasmal Distortion -Act One: It awakens...-
"Sometimes, I wonder why the world works the way it does."

"For what reason, Annie?"

"It often sees as if the worlds are held together by the thinnest of strings, dangling ever closer to the scissors that will eventually sever them and start 'That'."

"Anira, you're worrying too much. When the time comes, you'll be ready. We'll all be ready. It's that or death, no middle ground to stand on."

"That wasn't reassuring, Akua."

"It wasn't meant to be. We don't have much time left before our connection is severed by dimensional interference and boundary feedback, I have to tell you something before that happens."

"I see. Speak quickly the- What the hell!?"

"Annie, get yourself and my daughters out of there!"

"What's going on!? Alisa! Iylessa!"

-Transmission End-

"That was rather disconcerting," mutters Volmond, sipping a cup of tea, "Those three are rather important to my plans... Seraph, could you awaken Helios and Asteria? It seems that I will need them to do something for me." The doctor receives no verbal answer from his "assistant," instead he senses a slight energy fluctuation that notifies him of her departure. Several seconds pass and another energy fluctuation occurs, signaling the girl's return. Volmond does not turn around, knowing he will be displeased at the sight behind him, and continues to sip his drink.

"Did you not have the time to make yourselves decent? For shame," he sighs. What sounds like twisting and tearing metal being ground against stone fills the doctor's head, followed shortly by the sound of a sorrowful angel's song. Volmond's eyes narrow and he glances at the two indecent beings standing behind Seraph. "Dress yourselves and activate your vocal modules before you return. People must be able to understand you for the job I have in store for you two." He receives a pair of nods before the two beings behind Seraph vanish. A moment later, he sighs. "I'm beginning to understand why you chose to do what you did, Seraph." A rare look of longing enters his eyes. "Just as you would do anything for the Judge, I would do anything to have 'her' back."

The doctor receives no answer again, though he does not expect to. The longing in his eyes diminishes just as the two beings return. He is greeted by the sight of his two masterpieces in their peak forms.

On the right stands Asteria Adventus, a slender six foot tall female humanoid with piercing red eyes,  wild forest green hair that flows to just below her waist, skin the color milk chocolate and several patches of scales grouped in symmetrical pairs. She is clad in a combination of black leather and cloth styled into torn jeans, a corset under a thin jacket, boots, several overlapping belts and a choker with a red heart insignia. On her hands rest several rings decorated with various inhuman skull, partially obscuring the swirling tattoos that flow up her arms.

On the left stands Helios Avant, a being better known as Heaven, a male humanoid standing slightly above Volmond's five feet and seven inches of height. He is fair in tone and slim in build with honeyed blonde hair and turquoise eyes that gleamed even in shadows. He wears a simple white coat with white fur lining the hood over a cyan, short sleeved turtleneck and silver jeans with golden stitching. His feet are shod in what appear to be simple sneakers, but on closer inspection tiny blue flames erupt from their soles.

Volmond smirks at his two creations before giving his orders:

"Asteria, I need you to locate several willing people to help me with a... Project of mine." The female humanoid nods before vanishing in a plume of flames. "Helios... I need you to visit Yosai Fortress and request a favor from Lady White in exchange for a favor greater value from me."

"And what would I be asking for, Volmond," questions the humanoid.

"The assistant I picked out during my last visit," answers the doctor, "Her assistance will be required before the day is over and done with."

Helios nods then vanishes in a storm of feathers. Volmond sighs.

"Today shall be long."

-Interlude- The Doctor's Reason
The Void of Stars, empty. The usually quiet realm had grown eerily quiet during the time in which Volmond left to deal with White. When he returns with Nezumi, he notes the difference.

"...The stability of this realm is worsening. It may be best if we process with-" before the word "caution" can leave the doctor's mouth a large blade erupts from the ground, creating spreading white cracks as it slides through the ground then returns to beneath the surface. "...The message is clear is it not?"

"Yes, it is. I will follow directions you need me to do."

"Then my first instruction is simple: Loosen up," replies the doctor, moving himself and Nezumi out of the path of another blade and the paths of those that follow. Initially, he had been surprised by the blades, but now he appears to expect them and know where each one is at any given moment. "I don't know what White told you to make you this stiff, but for your sake ignore it. I know that she trusts me to be within a yard of her, but a large amount of her wariness is unneeded... Ah, we've arrived."

The area Volmond notes doesn't appear much different from the rest of the Void of stars, but the air is different. While the rest of the realm felt cold and distant, this area pulsed with the power of the eight elements and another, older power. Additionally, there were several bookshelves, each crowded by dozens of books, and a large crystalline orb that floated several meters above ground.

Volmond snaps his fingers and his desk appears, messier than before if possible.

"Make yourself at home, it will take me awhile to decipher why there is such a clause within the spell," says Volmond, shifting papers around on the desk and opening the books around him to specific pages, "Until I'm finished, read a book or do what you normally would. You don't have to worry about safety, only the people I allow can enter this place and no outside interference can enter this place."

She quietly sits down and does little else except look around.

''She doesn't get out much, does she? I find that rather sad, but I cannot judge White for that. ''

"Is something on your mind?" Volmond continues to shift the mess around until something catches his eye. "Aha!"

"Nothing. I am just waiting. Have you found something?" She asks impartially.

"Possibly, though I can't be sure... Hm, it may work... or it will exile us to the Tartarusian Quarter... I'll see if I can find a safer method," mutters the doctor. "By the by, do you absorb knowledge and power like the other one like you? Not the one Lady White lost, but the one beside her at nearly all times."

"All of us have powerful minds. How we use them is subjective. All of us have the power to aquire new abilities, however. White creates batches of us to determine the most favorable attributes that can be produced, and through process of elimination has found her preferred variances for my generation. Our generation, the Eta will be made as long as White is content with us. She always looks for new ways to hybridize and improve us. When she finds the next race of interest, she will merely replace us with the generation that will result, and we will simply sleep until the time comes she has want of us."

She says this with no emotional intonation of how she feels about what she has said.

"That is indeed saddening, then. You've described your brethren and yourself as tools...," Volmond says. Suddenly, his eyes light up only to dull. "No, Antiva isn't fruendly this time of year... Or anytime of year for that matter..." He sighs before gesturing for Nezumi.

She gets up and walks over to him. "What is it?" She asks.