Azure Chronicles: Maelstrom

Zalroth entered the large pure white cube evaluation room, with the sliding glass double door closing behind him. He made his way to the centre of the evaluation room while the others watched from the observation room. The speakers in front of the observation room buzzed to life as Katika tapped a microphone.

"Okei doki, Zalroth. First, you'll have your status calibrated using a kaiser measuring device before you go through a practical test, okay?" Katika stated. Zalroth gave her a thumbs-up before Katika pressed a button. A black ring formed on the ground in front of Zalroth before bulging out of the floor. The bulging section separated from the floor which formed into a football-sized white sphere. The sphere floated up to be level with Zalroth's chest. A beam shot out from the sphere and washed over Zalroth, scanning him before it retracted back into the sphere.

"Now just punch the sphere, and don't worry about breaking it," Maxwell uttered, with Katika pouting at him and whining about him butting in. Zalroth nodded before he reeled his fist back. He hurled his fist, making everyone aside from Katika widen their eyes as, in a split second, the sphere exploded into a cloud of smoke. Katika swung her head back towards Zalroth and confusedly gasped at seeing the cloud.

"What happened?" Katika uttered.

"Mr Zalroth was like erm, them vrwoosh, and then the ball went kafwooush," Kuuyasa explained excitedly while mimicking Zalroth's previous movements. Katika nodded before turning to the statistic monitor, only for a puzzled expression to form on her face.

"Huh?" Katika uttered as she stared at Zalroth's status.

[Zalroth]

[LV: 1 ][Rank: N/A]

[Class: Benevolent Malevolence]

[HP: 0+] [KP: 0]

[P-ATK: N/A]

[M-ATK: N/A]

[P-DEF: N/A]

[M-DEF: N/A]

[SPD: N/A]

"Come on... this has gotta be a joke," Katika murmured deflatedly. Maxwell placed a hand on his chin, contemplating something before he sighed.

"What a hassle," Maxwell uttered as he rubbed his forehead.

"I know, right," Katika grumbled. Maxwell nodded.

"We both know he's definitely S rank, but protocol demands we assign him what rank the measuring device states," Maxwell stated. Katika murmured and ran her fingers through her hair as she tried to make sense of things until she glanced at Kuusaya.

"You said she was going to be his kaiser beast companion, right?" Katika asked. Maxwell shrugged nonconfirmatively.

"Might as well have her do the-.".

"I wouldn't recommend that," Maxwell stated sternly. Katika's fake fox ears sprung upwards, and she turned to Maxwell.

"It must be serious if it's even making you want to circumvent the rules," Katika remarked cheekily while nudging Maxwell's side. Maxwell groaned and flicked Katika on the forehead.

"Just use your Kaiser Analytics skill on Kuuyasa," Maxwell grumbled. Katika rolled her eyes as she turned to Kuusaya before using her aforementioned skill to make Kuuyasa's status appear.

[Kuuyasa]

[LV: 250][Rank: X]

[Class: Devourer God]

[HP:50,000] [KP:900,000]

[P-ATK: 0]

[M-ATK: 25,000]

[P-DEF: 50,000]

[M-DEF: 50,000]

[SPD: 2,500]

Maxwell placed a hand on his chin and nodded inquisitively, recalling Kuuyasa breaking the gate she came from by simply biting it. Katika slowly and rigidly rotated her body until she arched her head up to look Maxwell in the eyes.

"I shall also veto using the evaluation device on Kuuyasa," Katika stated nervously. Kuusaya, propping herself up with her tail to be eye level with the window, turned her head towards the panicked Katika while having a lost look on her face. The dust cloud swooshed and swirled before a concentrated blast of wind pierced through the dust in a room-spanning circular shape.

"Erm... the evaluation is over... Zalroth?" Katika said as she looked around the examination chamber for Zalroth.

"What are you looking for?" Zalroth, standing behind Katika and Maxwell, asked. Katika frantically jumped on the spot while flailing her arms and making a cat-like scream. Her face went pale before she fell to her side and fluttered to the floor with a soft thump.

"Please don't sneak up on me like that," Katika muttered softly as she led deflatedly on the floor.

"Sorry about that," Zalroth said. Maxwell picked Katika up and held her in his arms like a cat.

"So, did anything change?" Zalroth asked.

"Well, stat-wise, no, but it did say you had the class called Benevolent Malevolence," Maxwell explained.

"Which means?" Zalroth asked as he tilted his head.

"No clue, never seen it before," Katika uttered as she exhaled heavily from feeling her soul leaving her body.

"However, there is something else we need to talk about," Maxwell stated as he directed Zalroth's attention to Kuuyasa's floating status. Zalroth stared at Kuuyasa's status before silently nodding. Maxwell glanced at Zalroth and sighed before he rolled his eyes.

"Do you even know what I was referring to a second ago?" Maxwell uttered. Zalroth raised his head high before shrugging.

"Nope.". Maxwell took in a deep breath to calm his nerves before opening his eyes.

"I think he's talking about my rank, Mr Zalroth," Kuuyasa said as she grabbed onto Zalroth's arm.

"I was referring to you being a Kaiser Beast God," Maxwell stated unamusedly.

"Ah...," Zalroth remarked nonchalantly while raising his arm and letting Kuuyasa hang from his arm. Maxwell lowered his head and slowly exhaled from his nose.

"Honestly, you not being phased is oddly reassuring," Katika remarked. A mental bolt of lightning shot through Zalroth's mind, snapping the duos' reactions and Kuuyasa (and Maxwell) referring to Kuuyasa as a kind of god together.

"So, Kuuyasa's a big deal then?" Zalroth asked with a fake confused tone.

"That would be an over-understatement," Oleka remarked as she had a confident demeanour but couldn't stop her legs from faintly wobbling. Zalroth, pretending to be surprised at Oleka's remark, nodded and hummed.

"So, the god part means she's super special?".

"Are you playing dumb or something?" Oleka said snarkily, "Although if what Kēki said is true, then you're just dumb- uninformed.". Katika slithered out from Maxwell's grasp and bounced up and down on the floor like a piece of jello.

"Look... to put it simply, kaiser beasts are normally categorized by their types: Monster, Ellite, Guardian, Boss, and God," Katika explained. Zalroth and Kuuyasa nodded as Katika continued to talk.

"And the reason why the God-Type kaiser beasts are special is, since unlike the other types, there is a cap to how many there are," Katika added.

"You could've just said there's only twenty in existence," Maxwell remarked, causing Katika to pout and whine about the way she said it sounding more mysterious with Maxwell striking back by stating she was just being a tease. As the duo continued to playfully bicker, Zalroth placed a hand on his chin and hummed at there being twenty.

"That's the same amount of anchors Mael mentioned," Zalroth remarked before he got a pop-up message in front of his face. The message opened without any input from Zalroth, revealing it to be from Mael.

[-Notice-]

[-Maelstrom System-]

[To Hunter Zalroth, currently there are two anchors in Freedom City]

[Click Here To See Current Quest]

Zalroth blinked at the message before he clicked the link, bringing up yet another RPG panel in his face.

[-Quests-]

[Reality Severence]

[You have been requested by Existence and the Maelstrom System to locate the anchors and find a way to unravel the two separate realities before they collapse each other]

[God Anchors Acquired: (1/20)]

"At least I won't have to worry if they are or aren't what I'm looking for... but Ester and Mael are giving me mixed signals, though," Zalroth uttered before the two panels disappeared. Zalroth returned his focus to the others, with Maxwell and Katika still bickering.

"So you figured out how to open your quest and Mail system," Oleka remarked. Zalroth flinched at hearing Oleka standing so close to him.

"Oh, so you saw that?" Zalroth asked with a hint of reserve in his voice. Oleka snickered at seeing Zalroth's slightly compromised unfazed demeanour.

"Don't worry, people can only see your mail panel if you allow them, but I'm surprised you got a god for the God Anchor Quest," Oleka stated before she opened her quest panel, "See, ignore the first quests.".

[-Quests-]

[SPEND YOUR UNSPENT STAT POINTS]

[Unused stat points left: (2,000/2,000)]

[God Anchors]

[The God-Type kaiser beasts have begun appearing from gates. These kaiser beasts are different from normal kaiser beasts; they have higher intelligence, are capable of speech, and can be befriended, as opposed to being turned into kaiser companions.]

[God-Type kaiser beasts obtained: (0/20)]

"You should really deal with that first one, Oleka," Katika remarked, with Maxwell nodding in agreement. Oleka closed her quest panel and angrily huffed.

"And I've told you I'm saving those until my class evolves the way I want it to," Oleka stated boldly. Oleka continued to defend her choice to save stat points as Zalroth pondered something.

"So, Mael gave me a unique quest and made others see it as a different quest," Zalroth said mentally. Kuuyasa climbed onto Zalroth's arm and stared at him with puzzled eyes as she wondered what he was pondering.