Anime Planet; a realm of the unimaginable, resting at the mouth of the Void itself. Lost souls wander into the realm seeking power, friendship, or much more, finding that the realm easily suits their needs in one way or another. For years, it has gone unnoticed to the other worlds due to its coexistence with the Void, but that is to change soon enough.
Hidden beneath the visible surface lies a power untapped, untouched by the mortals that live above. The ones with power, known as the Immortals, know of its existence, but stays away from using the raw potential, for they do not know what its side effects may be to the surface world. For the better of the realm, they decide to seal the power source, uniting their own abilities to block it from being accessed.
Through the years that the realm has been in existence, however, they have gained and lost quite a few of their standing Immortals, strengthening and then weakening the barrier that surrounds the power. As a side effect of this, many strange occurrences have been happening, causing quite a commotion for mortal and immortal alike. With the barrier weakening as the years go by, it is only a matter of time before it is noticed by the darkness of the mortal heart and taken advantage of.
—-
Within the limitless space of Limbo, the Immortals convene to discuss a serious matter. Standing within the ranks is Alpha, the robotic Immortal in charge of Global Development; Etrigan, a demonic puppet master that helps develop Mortal Choice; Gideon, a normal-looking Global Operator; and Mazer, the scruffy-looking man in charge of the Immortals.
“We've had many mortals complain about items disappearing,” Gideon speaks up. In his hands, he holds a list of mortals pertaining to the issues that will be addressed. “Furthermore, none of the items seem to be similar to one another.”
“Are they from the same region?” Alpha asks in a monotonous tone.
“No. That is what makes the problem seem even more serious. Furthermore, the same item doesn't disappear from different people. It's more like… they're being stolen from the people rather than the item itself is just vanishing.”
“That's impossible. I've placed a law over stealing. The realm recognizes that it won't allow items to be stolen.” Etrigan responds, a bit defensive. He had made sure to run numerous tests over the law before spreading it worldwide. Gideon shrugs, putting one list down before reading from another.
“It seems that both the city of Xenogaeus and the Astral Plane have become affected by an illusion.”
“I've tried straightening up both of them, but they just go back to how they were within a minute.” Alpha adjusts his chest plate before adding, “It's beginning to spread to the wilderness outside of the city too. Both Haon'dor and Miden'nir have become a nightmare for those venturing outside of the city.”
“Just what is going on?” Mazer mutters to himself, staring off into the darkness of Limbo. “Etrigan, head back into Shell and see if there is a loop being run on the areas. Gideon, see if there was any connection between the mortals and where they were when they noticed it was stolen. Alpha, try to figure another way to straighten the areas up, or at least seal off the spread.”
Acknowledging their separate commands, they disappear from Limbo to begin their tasks. Mazer continues to stare off, wondering what could be happening to the realm. Nothing comes to mind as he stays around for a while longer before disappearing off to help Etrigan.
Mazer appears at the entrance to Shell, a large, mechanical nautilus shell that is detached from the rest of the realm. As he walks to the access console to enter, he sees that his login was partially entered already. His ID had been entered, and it was currently asking him for his password. Looking around the foggy emptiness that surrounded the area, he wondered who was trying to get in.
“Etrigan?” he tried to hail him through telepathy.
“Yeah, boss?”
“Is there anyone else in Shell?”
It took a minute for Etrigan to run a scan of the interior. “Nope. Why?”
“Nevermind.” Mazer scanned around him once more before entering his information in to enter. Within the first room, he brought up another console to change his access information before doing anything more, not wanting to take any chances.
—-
Meanwhile, on the surface of the realm, mortals travel to and fro, using Xenogaeus as their middle point. Adventurers, mercenaries, and travelers appear frequently at the Temple of Anime, an ancient building that had existed since the realm's appearance many years ago. Although many of the shopkeepers that dwelt within the city had been replaced time after time, the city still retained its rustic charm.
On watch at the Temple of Anime currently was Guy Remortum, an apprentice medium for the Immortals. He was helping members of Death Squad prune out useless information on the info screens seen throughout the realm, using the access panel given to Guy. With the recent purge of a virus in the Moogle Village, all of the Mognet carriers had been to afraid of contamination, stalling the delivery of vital news from the Immortals.
“That should be the last of it,” Guy said. He had just finished disposing of the last spam note that kept appearing on the screens in-between the more important information. “You'd think some of these people would grow up.”
“It's all in good fun, though. Lighten up,” said one of the Death Squad guards. Having done what was needed, they excused themselves to get back to guarding the headquarters. Guy stretched his body, a deck of cue cards falling out of his pocket. Realizing his blunder, he bent down to pick them up. A few mortals noticed what had happened and helped him pick up a few that were farther away.
“Thanks,” he smiled at the kind adventurers.
“You're welcome. Any word on the condition with the city yet?” one of the mortals asked, worried. “Some of the items that have been lost from the treasury has been turning up there more often than anywhere else, and we can't get to some places.”
“Cobra Base can only be accessed by the mages, and they certainly don't want to help a poor warrior like me out when I need to get there,” whimpered another.
“I haven't received any word yet, but I'm sure they're working as hard as they can to get these things fixed. Have faith in them. They've worked hard for this long, so they're bound to figure this out as well.”
“Yeah, well… just keep us updated, ok?” A bit frustrated, the group of mortals walk off towards the center of the city. Guy wipes a bead of sweat off of his brow and sighs, having avoided another confrontation with the mortals once again.
“They definitely picked the wrong guy for this job,” he thought to himself as he grimaced at the memory of the previous disturbance he was faced with. Taking out an antacid to quell the heartburn that was rising, he sat down to continue reading a risqué book he had ordered from Paradise.
“Hey, what's going on?” Mortals around Guy began to whisper and murmur at what they were reading on the info screens. Guy wondered what was going on, putting his book down. On the main screen was an oddly designed notice with jumbled letters. He looked down at the keyboard, seeing nothing out of the ordinary, but the notice continued adding more text to itself, as if it was live.
“Uh oh.” Guy sat up, concentrating on trying to hail the Immortals. Something out of the ordinary was going on, and he didn't have an answer for it on any of his cue cards.
