Azure Chronicles: Maelstrom

Another transparent vortex portal appeared and lit up the ground around the portal of the pitch-black room. Zalroth hopped out of the portal and landed on the ground, followed by the portal closing and leaving the group in complete darkness.

"Wow... it's so dark in here that I can't hear anything," Minia commented, which managed to get a few chuckles out of the others. A multitude of different coloured, sized, and interlocking glowing rings formed all over the ground allowing the group to see their surroundings.

The space within the largest ring, located in the centre of all the other rings, lit up before a sphere of sacred-looking fire rose out from within the circle. Multiple rings formed around the sphere and gave it the appearance of a biblically accurate angel, just minus the eyes and wings.

"Greetings travellers from another reality. I am the Maelstrom Architecture, but you may call me Mael for simplicities sake," Mael the sacred flame stated while also adding they were grateful to the group for agreeing to help.

"Don't sweat it, it's what we're made for," Zalroth remarked.

"Existence already gave us the rundown on the situation but didn't say too much..., well anything, about the place we were going to, so I was kinda hoping you could enlighten us," Chronia explained. Mael's sphere core flickered through a few colours before they started to slowly bob up and down.

"The world you are going to is very similar to the world that the people you refer to as otherworlders are from," Mael stated. Nola asked if that meant the people there can't use magic; Mael informed the group that wasn't the case but that the magic system of this world is different.

"And what might that magic system be?" Nola asked.

"The power system functions like those RPG games that are popular in all worlds that possess them; there are also portals that appear all around the world called Gates that function similarly to the Magic Dungeons you are familiar with," Mael explained as another ring turned into a circle. The circle rose up from the ground and floated in front of Zalroth. Mael requested for Zalroth to place his hand on the panel; Zalroth placed his hand on the panel, followed by technological lines forming on Zalroth's body before the lines on his body and the panel disappeared.

"With that, you'll be able to interact with the architecture I am tasked with managing," Mael stated, confusing Zalroth and Minia until Chronia and Nola explained to them that Mael was referring to the RPG-themed magic system. Mael informed Zalroth on how to use the Maelstrom System; he followed Mael's instructions and a translucent cyan menu popped up in from of Zalroth. The menu showed a picture of Zalroth's face (minus his kitsune ears), his name, a basic bio of him (like physical age, gender, blood type (although that showed N/A), various RPG stats and a few buttons).

[Zalroth] [LV: 1]

[HP: 0+] [KP: 0]

[P-ATK: N/A]

[M-ATK: N/A]

[P-DEF: N/A]

[M-DEF: N/A]

[SPD: N/A]

"Why are there so many N slash As?" Minia asked.

"Given that one doesn't possess any kaiser energy, this world's equivalent to mana, the system is unable to ascertain his strength but once he's absorbed enough energy the system might be able to give more useful information, along with access to Kaiser Skills," Mael stated to the group. Mael stated that was all they had to say and if the group had any other questions before Mael opened a portal to Earth; Zalroth pondered something and decided to ask it.

"I know this is a huge shot in the dark but do you know where any of the realities tethers are?" Zalroth half-heartedly asked with the expectation the answer was a no.

"Other than one, I am incapable of locating the others in this reality but at the moment there are only twenty of them," Mael stated.

"Only twenty huh? That sure beats the two hundred ancient towers," Chronia remarked. Mael explained that the one reality tether they know the location of is somewhere within a place called Freedom City. Mael once again asked the group if they had any other questions, to which they had none. Mael created another circle and a bag floated out from it. the bag floated over to the group; Minia grabbed it and the group looked inside the bag to see its contents; the bag contained various octagonal colourless opaque crystalline coins that had various glowing symbols on them.

"The bag is full of Hexal coins. For the time being, you'll have to carry them physically but if you decide to officially become a Hunter you'll be able to store them within the issued Hunter Card," Mael explained as a large horizontal ring formed next to Zalroth before the space inside the ring glowed and showed a cityscape far off in the background.

"One last thing, you should hide your non-human features given the populace of Earth are all humans," Mael added. Zalroth sighed before he and Minia hid their kitsune features. The sisters cheerfully bidded Mael goodbye before Zalroth hopped through the portal, followed by the portal disappearing. The glowing rings slowly began to fade away and the circle that Mael came out of only faded away once Mael floated back into it.

Zalroth landed on a road and looked at the high-tech city surrounded by an enormous lake. Zalroth sighed as he channelled his cyan chakra through his bones/blood vessels before he sprinted toward Freedom City at a moderate sub-sonic speed.

A short, young-teen-looking human girl (she has faintly cyan silver hair with glowing cyan tips, red left eye and a cyan left eye, super pale skin) lazed about in the back of a limo as it drove down the road that, far in the distance, led to a bridge connecting the main landmass to Freedom City. The girl was lazily watching a funny cat video on a floating translucent pale cyan screen.

"Princess... I know you're not too frilled about having to attend Dragon Star Academy... but at least your father was willing to compromise and agreed to also pay for your boyfriend's tuition; also, could you please make yourself appear more presentable?" the limo driver mentioned. The princess agitatedly groaned as she at up; she picked up a red ribbon and tied her hair into the shape of a large bow. As she was putting the finishing touches on her hair, the princess glanced out the window right as Zalroth sprinted past the window and the princess was able to see Minia giving her a piece sign for a split second. The princess was left slightly confused at what she saw but muttered it was kind of cool how fast Zalroth was.

Somewhere within Freedom City, Hunters are gathered around an A Ranked Gate (a large red opaque medieval door made of crystal textured energy) that had police all around the Gate and the streets/roads around the Gate. The hunters in armour were murmuring about why the A-ranked raid squad haven't come out yet.

"They've been in there for over a week and a dungeon break could happen at any moment; if a dungeon break does happen then it most likely means that the hunters that went in most likely perished," a blond slick-haired, blond-bearded, cyan eyed, and tall white-skinned man muttered to himself as a hunter in some specialized equipment hurried over to him.

"Inspector Maxwell, the gate monitor just went off the charts, the Gate's about to have a dungeon break!" the gate monitor shouted which put everyone on high alert. The strongest hunters rushed over to the gate and readied their weapons while Maxwell ordered all the lower-ranked hunters to stand back and brace themselves. The gate started to crack before it shattered into a thousand pieces and only left an extremely cracked crystalline doorframe.

The hunters remained on edge as they waited for something or anything to come out of the portal. The hunters slowly lowered their weapons when it was evidently clear that nothing was going to come out. The hunters looked over at Maxwell and asked him what was going on. Maxwell pondered what reasons could have led to nothing coming out of the gate.

"Perhaps the raid squad managed to wipe out the dungeon boss but were also taken out or weren't able to find the exit and..." Maxwell said before shaking his head. Maxwell ordered everyone to get ready to enter the gate's dungeon and search for any signs of the raid squad. The Hunters acknowledged Maxwell's orders and walked away from the broken gate before beginning to make preparation to enter the gate.

While all the hunters were preoccupied, a short figure covered by a tatted cloak which had some spots of blood on it peeked their head around the gate and once they confirmed no one was watching the gate; they snuck out from the gate and rushed down a nearby alleyway.