"Welcome young celestial"
002 heard the voice whisper as he rose to his feet, brandishing his force gun, he throughly scutinises the whole space but finds no one, even the two Locken siblings were no where to be found, suddenly an opening appeared on one of the intersecting crystal bridges, wary of who or what may come through the door, he quickly hid in an assumed blind spot and observed, it had been a while and not even a gust of wind came through the door, getting impatient 002 decides to take the initiative, and leaped from the position which was at a lower elevation, unto the bridge with the opening.
Standing in front of the opening, 002 was met with a rather peculiar and somewhat frightening scene, from the point of view of the cautious individual he had become, before him was a group of Locken with similar features to the siblings, the siblings were a part of this group as well, from his side they seemed to be bickering, but there was no sound what so ever, it was as if watching a holographic presentation without the audio, the locken were occupied with their business and paid him no mind, he naturally assume he was looking at a video recording, so he decides to shoot it, if the owners of the place didn't want it to be taken apart they will eventually show themselves, pointing his gun he prepares to shoot.
"Wait! Honoured Vanguard"
One of the Locken stepped through the supposed video recording and spoke, 002 was momentarily stupefied but quickly composed himself, as he quickly realised the he had just come across a transperant acoustic barrier, he suddenly felt like a monkey, or in a more refined sense, an ignoramus.
"I told you he would wait at least 5 minutes before even approaching, for such a big guy his courage doesn't match his size"
Freitha told the other Locken as she stepped through the barrier, 002 was somewhat displeased see her again, he was not pleased by the endless mocking and scolding, but he couldn't be bothered to retaliate, for he had his own wood to cut, the occasional whispers he heard since he got there had become, more frequent and louder, and continued to worsen by the second, at this speed a normal human would hear a incoherent buzzing, but 002 being a lvl 4 Transendent, could hear and understand them all too clearly,
"come closer young celestial"
"Time is of the essence"
"The Noble celestial race requires you to fulfil your duty"
"Mother wishes to see you before her flaws catch up with her"
"Fear not young celestial, i am your ally"
These were some of the phrases the voice would say, in repition or an unknown pattern, the endless cacophony, despite it chaotic nature didn't seem to directly and physically interfere with 002's cognition nor motor condition but the insecent whispering was quite annoying.
"This way honourable Vanguard"
Freith, who had just arrived at the scene said, gesturing the direction, 002 complied, once he crossed to the other side of the barrier, the whispering seem to stop, drowned out by the chatter and arguing on the other side, but this was short felt, moments after he stepped to the other side, the chattering and chaotic atmosphere seem to momentarily vanish, all eyes were on him, the Locken curiously and probably frightenedly stared, no one dared to move, the had once seen an individual of considerable stature, but 002 was much taller and fearsome in his force armour, his mysteriousness, further enhanced by his trusty helmet which covered his face.
002 confidently followed behind Freith, through the black crystal corridors, they somewhat resembled the Crystal Palace's corridors, it was calming, even the insecent whispering had seized. Soon they arrived at a large door it's height and width was overbearing, standing before the crystal door he was immediately reminded of the time he first met them, the "Vicarius Imperatoris", a council of Nine peak lvl 9 transendents, they were known to be the clones of the emperor who till this day remains in seclusion, awaiting the day when we find the "great enemy" the Lycana, only special military units and lvl 8 and above had clearance to know this information. The Vicarius Imperatoris, together ruled as an emperor, giving the lower classes the illusion of the existence of a central force in charge of all, an emperor, every time the emperor was sighted, those who knew, knew they were look at a double or clown, no one was truly sure, some hypothesized that as long as you reach the ninth lvl, you could apply to become on of the nine, but more fanatical hypothesis, was that they were indeed clones of the emperor.
"Honoured Vanguard, Honoured Vanguard!"
Freith suddenly called out, pulling 002 out of his daydreaming, the slowly opening door was opened enough for him to enter, just like the day he met the council he stepped through the door, but this time was confident and unintimidated.
Freith didn't follow turning to leave, the door began to close shut, but 002 wasn't allarmed, resolutely walked further from the door, loud clocking sounds could be heard as the door finally closed, in a blink of an eye the empty room now had a structure at it's center.
"Young celestial, I welcome you once more"
The familiar metallic voice said with better consistency, the voice came from the direction of the structure which no longer stood in solitude, beside it stood a figure with stature comparable with that of 002, it's eyes lacked pupils, and was green all over, it had no hair, just a scalp resemblance if a white marble, it had attire strange to 002 and it's humanoid structure could be compared to that of a male transendent, muscular and abiding to the golden ratio of astetics though he clearly had no soft components.
002 drew closer and without beating around the bush directly asked,
"who are you and why did you call me here?"
The figure instead asked 002,
"What is you opinione on the vision you saw after you listened to the story of Locke?"
002 did not understand what he meant, and asked for clarification,
"What vision?"
"Think deep young celestial, my identity lies within that fragment of memory"
"I cannot remember, and why do you refer to me as a celestial?"
"You are not fit to partake of this knowledge if you cannot even recall my identity"
"002 was stupefied and short of words, but he didn't feel encouraged to use violence, something was impeding that feeling, suddenly the figure pointed a 002, immediately after the ground below 002 opened and he fell through.
"When you are worthy we will unravel the secrets together, young.. Noble celestial".