Ascenders Rift

The lights from the various lamp posts and buildings gave the Morning Star Academy a warm feeling despite the coldness of twilight; however, the typical campus ambiance was at this moment no longer the same. Usually, one would expect to see a variety of new students and old, intermingling in the open fields or recreation centers as they galivanted without care.

Yet, despite traveling for a good while, Evan could not see any such activities. He shook his head and spoke, "Well, it seems that they've all been pretty shaken, back then I had no idea, and had only come to learn a few things after the 1st Calamity had started. Yet, even then, I was too mentally shaken up to put any further effort into anything. I guess right now; they should be prepping themselves to train with that device..."

As Evan spoke here, he recalled the HDP headgear shown by RADA during the meeting. He pondered, "Typically, one can't identify the stats of an individual not until they at least awakened, even if you inspect it will show no results as they are unawakened beings. However, if you used those Black Stone C... or rather, these Void Shards, you could bypass them and view a person's talents. I suppose those devices are akin to artificial Lesser Spaces in that it might be able to project the mind into a type of spiritual body, one that shares or maybe copies the properties of its hosts. Since this is so, why would RADA have such technology? I don't recall any research facilities with such advancements. If anything, only the Val Corps might be able to produce such technology, and this is in the situation that they had prior knowledge and assistance from those behind the Rift System."

Upon thinking here, Evan recalled the moment RADA made its appearance; he thought, "Now that I think of it, they appeared the instant the 1st Calamity struck acting as an aid to all of humanity, passing out information on when the other calamities will strike. It's almost as if they were a force working in direct control of that damn God."

As he thought of the God, Evan's face sunk as he gritted his teeth and murmured, "That bastard... if the RADA group is really connected with him, then I'll have to tread even more lightly. If anything, I'll need to learn of their numbers and know who their leaders are?"

As Evan said this, he shook his head as his eyes became firmer when he thought, "This isn't the time, when I send Alan a reply, I'll see if he can look into their details a bit. As for now, I need to lay low, for if even Alan could find me, there's no saying that they won't be able to do so, and although I have no fear of them in combat, there are far too many ways to get me to submit. Be it coercion, or any other methods that I can list off my fingers. Right now, they should more or probably have me on a list of suspects from the Skyrise Mountains. Because of this, I'll probably need to use the helmet and not act suspicious by not using it to hide my abilities. Maybe, once they see my stats, they will probably lower their guards to a certain extent..."

After clarifying his thoughts, Evan continued to make his way towards the hostels. Yet, as Evan walked, not too far away was a figure that stood silently in the shadows, the person watched him intensely as his eyes shone sharply, vaguely his body glowed in a dark power before it faded. He then slowly followed behind, keeping a certain length of distance as his eyes watched him keenly.

Evan seemed to have sensed something, but he didn't even show any reactions and yawned as he continued to walk forward.

The person who trailed Evan from a distance frowned as despite following Evan back to the hostel, there was no response or reaction from him at all. After watching Evan enter the building, he then turned and stopped in a nearby corner and took out his phone.

As he pressed a button on speed dial, the familiar voice of Alton sounded, "Well, how did it go? Who did you start with?"

"Sir Section Head, I've tested suspect 9 for possible changes, but he didn't have any reactions to my Battle Energy probes. I further inspected him, but it doesn't seem that he's even awakened yet. We can mark him as temporary, clear on the list. The next phase would be to assess his scores and statistics in the simulation..." The man said.

Alton was silent for a while before he spoke, "Good, then have someone accurately monitor his first entry. If his first entry proves to be normal then terminate any further assessments, the next priorities will be those others from the list, and then the woman from the military and her sister..."

The man paused for a bit before he spoke, "Sir… that woman, the military..." He was about to speak, but Alton promptly spoke to cut off his words, "I know, they have their Military Special Sectors, if it turns out that she is one of those in the MSS then even we won't be able to do as we please. Remember, we are primarily looking for that suspect of the Death's Fissure case, other than that, we need to isolate particular talents for those Coded Lists..."

The then nodded as he replied, "Understood."

As he said this, his body then blurred as he vanished out of thin air. A few moments after this man left, a figure had swooshed down from a nearby wall, he glanced in the direction the man left with an in-depth look in his eyes before vanishing.

At a few floors above ground, the window form dorm 401 was open as the curtains fluttered wildly. Suddenly, a figure had appeared as if the person jumped from the distant ground into the window. Not long after, the figure took of a cloth that was wrapped over his face as he closed the window and sat down.

"So, it turns out that I didn't need to wait that long, a careless spy is more than enough to give me essential information..." Evan thought as he smirked while thinking back to the spy's phone call, though he spoke softly with Evan's current skill and level, no one could easily sneak up on him, much-less hide their whispers.

"The MSS, I recall them being a mighty group in the military. They had weapons that could easily bring harm to most level 1 to 5 Ascenders. This must be why they were able to resist RADA in such early stages; I had no idea that the Twin Roses were a part of their fighting force. No wonder Angeline's party could be ranked as number two. Since this is so, I do not need to give them a pendant; they have their means of protection." Evan said as he recalled his meeting with them in the Skyrise Mountains, he knew Hank had carried all their weapons, but he didn't pay close attention to what kind.

After thinking here, Evan then pondered the bits about the Coded Lists as he speculated, "These Coded Lists if I am right, should then be the lists used to segregate talents. Fatty could be classed as a talent that must survive for a certain amount of time, while Emilia could be classed as a talent to eliminate at an earlier point. The question this raises is, why do they still need to die in the end? What do they gain from the death of special talents?"

Evan thought for a bit before he clenched his fists and spoke, "It's not enough, still too limited... plus, I shouldn't continue to waste more time pondering things for which there are no factual details. I should get ready to use this thing..."

Evan's eyes shifted to the bed, where his HDP headband rested. He noticed that Fatty Joe was already lying down with his pill canister open and the headgear on his head.

Evan's eyes grew slightly red when he saw this; he recalled his previous life when he thought that fatty was merely playing a game and was very angry that he could waste all his time on such things.

"Never did I think that you were so determined to protect those you hold dear, jumping into this training device the moment you got it. Although it is many years overdue, and you can't hear it, I'll say this once fatty. I'm sorry for how I treated you, and I sincerely thank you for choosing to be friends with a guy like me, during those harsh years…" As Evan said this, he smiled while giving the fatty a warm look before shaking off the feeling.

He then sat down, looked at Rick's empty bed and murmured, "He must probably think it's a waste of time, I should probably tell him to try just once not to let them suspect him for anything."

After organizing his thoughts, Evan took up the helmet and placed it on his head before lying down and closing his eyes. His lips curved into a sly smile as he muttered, "Well, let's get this show on the road..."

After saying this, he pushed a button on the headband, causing it to light up as a mechanical voice sounded in his ear. [Initiating boot sequence: 3…2…1]

[Boot Sequence Complete: Commencing transfer...]

As the voice said this, the world around Evan began to change as everything faded into black, following this a wave of brilliant lights then enveloped everything in his sight. Soon, his mind had faded from reality, as it traveled towards a unique world.