“Crazy… This is crazy…”
Julie paced around her hotel room anxiously. From left to right, to left again, there was a strange rhythm within the madness of it all. Working at the HPP has made her sowhat immune to crazy incidents, but what had happened just fifteen minutes prior was beyond anything should have ever comprehended.
“A god! A fucking god! I talked to god!”
She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. No, maybe the answer was to simply go down on her knees and start praying for good fortune. Surely it’s not too late to return to the church now, right?...
But from her fragnted understanding of the supernatural, Julie knew that the gods they speak of were nothing more than powerful beings… In a way, the entity currently sleeping inside her soul was one such being. Although He claid to not be a god but a follower of one, there was no discounting His feats.
IRE S-8181. This was an IRE she faintly read about in one of the classified dossiers provided to lower level agents through the AGI network. Although most of the information available to her regarding it was heavily sanitized, she did understand a few things.
For one, this IRE was excavated sowhere in the middle east. When the Hand of Relics division found it, it was originally nothing more than an old, stone tablet layered in runes. Most likely, the image Dr. Miguel sent to her was also a fragnt from that tablet.
Secondly, the origins of the tablet have been unknown—it didn’t match any of the eras known to them through carbon dating. What was even more surprising was its nigh impossible resistibility. It had been shown to be indestructible to all attacks, both of kinetic and spiritual origin. And it wasn’t until years later that research showed that within the tablet, resided the soul of an ancient being nad Solomon.
Attempts at communicating with Him were pretty much a failure on all fronts. However, the anima that stirred from within the ancient relic gave them a glimpse at its unfathomable power. What was even more terrifying was the fact that even with extensive wards and other defensive asures utilizing the capabilities of countless Warden class IREs, S-8181 had been observed to ‘wander’ outside its containnt zone on its own. The entire tablet would randomly erge sowhere else in the world, putting the organization on high alert each ti.
It got so bad, the HPP resorted to assigning an entire PTF-0 squadron to monitor its activities only. And yet, even with such a force, they were never able to stop it from leaving if it wanted to.
Even so, the fact that it never hard any civilians or caused damage to the world still gave it the designation of Sigma (Safe), hence the ‘S’ in its codification. Many in the organization viewed it as nothing more than a nuisance and not a danger, despite the fact that His powers would likely be a threat to most of humanity if He ever desired to use it in such a way.
The rest of His details were heavily redacted, but after the brief conversation she had with Him just minutes prior, it was obvious that His origins mirrored the sa Solomon she knew of from history…
Keeper of the Seals, Father of Grimoires, Master of Spirits… There were countless titles attributed to Him. Many scholars dismissed them as re myth and religious folklore, but now that Julie had dipped her feet into the vast ocean of mysticism, those stories no longer felt fictional to her…
In fact, it was quite the opposite. She felt as if these tales weren’t enough to fully describe His legends.
And now, for whatever reason, this ancient being that seed just as much of a god Himself was residing peacefully within her… Taking a nap…
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“Why… ?” This question continued to repeat itself in her mind endlessly.
Logically, it made no sense in the slightest. She was nothing more than a weak intern—soone who had only just now started seeing the world for what it really was… There were countless experts and soldiers within the Phantasm Task Forces that would have provided Solomon safer refuge…
And the sa could be said in regards to IRE A-1549. Scribe-of-worlds shouldn’t have had any reason to place a mark on her… A mark from a god, no less.
It was all so extrely strange… And yet, there indeed was sothing that tied these events together. A single point of origin for which all her roots of misfortune had spread from within.
“Soren…” The word drowned out the once pristine silence of the hotel room. This was the na of the person whose house she visited that fateful day… It was a simple na—one that she used to say all the ti when addressing that person. At least, before they inevitably drifted apart one day.
“Where the hell are you?..” She bit her lips tightly.
As much as it annoyed her to say it, she really wanted to see him again. Although he was incredibly arrogant and a pain in the ass to deal with, there was no other person she knew that was as smart as he was. If it was him, he would have already figured out a plan forward by now…
She could just imagine it—his annoyingly punchable smug face that was full of confidence as she would tell him all about her adventures in this shady organization. How he would blow her off and say, “What? You an to tell an internet website ca alive and is actively hunting you down? Have you tried turning the PC off and on again?”
The more she thought about it, the more annoyed she beca.
But aside from that, she also deeply regretted not helping him more. Soren never spoke much about his past, but Julie could sense it—that behind his brazen and pretentious deanor was a bottomless pit of insecurities and pain. At one point, she did try to reach him, to pull him out of it, to show him a different side to the world he had co to despise.
But… none of it worked. And over ti, even she had quietly and unknowingly given up.
Maybe that was her arrogance to—thinking she could “rescue” him, or worse, pity him for his circumstances. Did she really ever try to be his friend in a genuine way? Or was she simply using him as an outlet to feel better about herself?
In hindsight, it was no wonder Soren never really opened up to her.
Julie shook her head. “There’s no ti for this…” Trying to change the past was impossible. Soren, as much as she hated to say it, was gone… He had involved himself with the world of mysticism without knowing anything, and had paid the price with his disappearance…
And yet, it wasn’t as if she had no way of looking for him... No, her current circumstances had led her toward closing in on the truth far more than before… And even before this current set of circumstances, she had countless opportunities to seek out an answer.
In truth, the only thing blocking her was herself. Scribe-of-worlds was an accessible website that anyone could enter. Even if the organization was against unauthorized use, she could have seeked Dr. Miguel’s permission fairly easily.
Fear clouded her vision and allowed her to stall for this long. Although she wanted to find her friend, a part of her didn’t want to get involved much further than she already was.
In the end, it turned out to be nothing more than a foolish endeavor. Fate had already twisted its hand, and just like an arrow fired from a bow, there was no way to stop its current trajectory.
“Solomon was right,” She threw herself onto the bed, “I need to accept reality. I am no longer just Julie, the boba tea lover and video ga connoisseur. I am now Investigative Agent Julie.”
“Well said,” a radiantly warm voice entered her mind.
She flinched, “Y-you were awake?! Don’t tell you read my thoughts!”
“...I didn’t hear everything.”
Her face turned bright red. “You bastard old man… Do you have no respect for privacy?!”
He chuckled. “It’s not up to , child. I reside within your Three Layers, rember? Every one of your vulgar thoughts reverberates within , like a maddening chaos storm. It truly baffles , how did humanity degrade so much in three thousand years? Are you the exception or the rule? I truly hope it's the forr and not the latter…”
“S-shut up!”
“At least tell this,” He ignored her. “What is this thing called… A Ga..cha? ga? Is it a children’s toy? Why does this word keep popping up in your Echo of Mind?”
“.....”
“Child, what’s wrong?”
She eventually sighed. “Don’t worry about it. Anyway, would you mind telling what your plans are now? Since you’re inhabiting my body, I have a right to know.”
Silence reigned over the room once again, but it was imdiately interrupted. “I suppose you are right. For one, I want to seek this Mr. Unknown out for answers just as that deity proposed. But also, there is sothing much more important to do first.”
She knit her brows. “And what would that be, pray tell?” Sothing about that statent gave her a bad feeling…
He answered nonchalantly, “Training you.”
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