Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Symphonia... If I would it'd be cool though. -Nods- Enjoy!

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It was a cold night. Almost too cold for anyone to be out at this time, and yet there were. Near the seemingly peaceful village of Asgard, there was a ranch. Not just an average ranch where people kept their cattle, no, this one was different. Way different. Inside these ranches, humans were kept, for the sole purpose of creating small orbs, about the size of a big marble. The creating of these things called expsheres didn't go the way as one would expect. They were not made by hand, as any normal employer would do. The exspheres could only by produced by draining the life of the living creature it was attached to, right at the skin. They got ill. In the end, the death of the host would result in finishing the evolution process of the exsphere. They are strange things, that allow to improve one's abilities to even an inhuman level, increasing speed, strength, accuracy, and so forth... But for a price. A price that is too much to ask. Human lifes. On top of that, the suffering of the deceased one will not stop, for the greedy object also collects the soul of its host. Once you're in one of them, there is no way of getting out. You watch, but can never intervene. You are nothing more, than a lifeless being, doomed to go through so many things, for eternity even. Some hold onto them as keepsakes, others simply to become stronger, even to give power and energy to mechanic systems... What they do not know, is the truth about them. They do not know, about the process of creating an exsphere. If they knew however, would they be able to throw it away?...

In this ranch, cold and filled with steel frames, there were some nightwatches outside. They were dressed in darkred suits, combined with black leather. They all wore helmets that covered their eyes, and had either a sword, bow, or even a whip. They didn't seem like the types to mess with. They guarded the electric fences, and many other technology, which was unknown in this world, named Sylvarant. These people, managing the work around the ranch, were named Desians. Desians weren't only in this place though, they were spread all throughout the world, causing havoc upon everything and everyone they found. Burning down villages, taking people to their disgusting ranches, and killing everyone who opposed them. No one dared to do anything against them. They were simply too strong, and with too many. A ll of the inhabitants of the world, relied on the Chosen, leaving the heavy task of chasing away the Desians on his, or her, shoulders. Many Chosens had failed up to now, dying when they were on the Journey of Regeneration, to make the land prosper by their magical journey, reviving the Goddess Martel in the process, and seal away the Desians. No one knew the true complicated matters behind all of this, no one had any suspicions either, but that's another story...

This ranch was one of the main ones at the moment, for it had a special inquiry going on. It was one of the most isolated ones, being well hidden in the forest. Technically seen this research meant making the ultimate exsphere. The named for the project was; The Angellus Project. They'd attach the first stadium of an exsphere right onto someone's skin, letting it grow steadily, tender, and with care, as if it was a newborn child. The leader off all the Desians was a man named Mithos Yggdrasill, Hero of the Ancient war. He had lived for over fourthousand years, thanks to the help of an exsphere, his body stopped aging. In fact, he was even able to control it. A long time ago he had been a good person. He was a half-elf, and despite the cruel discrimination against them by humans as well as half elves, he always tried to make the best of it. In the end, he had joined forces, and let the many years raging war stop, together with his three best friends, making an end to the suffering by splitting the two fighting countries named Thete'alla and Sylvarant apart. His three friends were named Yuan, a blue haired half elf, Martel, his green haired sister, who was more like a motherly figure to him, and last but certainly not least, even a human, named Kratos Aurion. All of these were still alive, also 4000 years old, except for Martel. She had been killed off by a human when she had tried to save him. In her last dying breath, she had wished for a world without discrimination. It was then that Mithos had gone out of control. He was determined to fufill Martel's last wish, but because he lost his sanity, it became a twisted version. Kratos nor Yuan tried to stop their best friend at the time. Mithos had gone through so much, they could understand his feelings.

At the present time, Mithos was in control of the both worlds named Sylvarant and Thete'alla that lay right next to another, but who were not able to notice each other at all. During the Ancient Kharlan war, the tree of mana, the very source of life, had withered and died. Since that time, the worlds started vying for each others mana. Like an hourglass. If a Chosen of Sylvarant for example would succesfully finish his or her journey of regeneration, the mana flow would be reversed. in other words, the mana would flow from Thete'alla to Sylvarant, making the world prosper. At that moment Thete'alla would start to decline, and so their Chosen set of on a journey of regeneration. It was a vicious circle, never being able to be able to broken, especially not with the ignorance of this process for everyone. One way or another, the one in command after Mithos, was Kratos.

This man had been in the Knighthood of Thete'alla at the time of the Ancient war, fighting for his country as brave and courageous as possible. However, his country was defeated, and there was nothing left of it. He had met Mithos and the others, and decided to join them. After all, they tried to make the world a better place, which was Kratos's intention as well. The man was rather tall, and muscular built. He seemed to be in his late twenties, although the truth was he was an ancient being. His hair was halflong, and beautiful auburn coloured, where as his eyes were a deep shade of crimson. He had a stoic look upon his handsome face as he walked towards the entrance of the Asgard ranch.

"Lord Kratos!" One of the guarding Desians called out, alerting his colleges. They all looked up at the man approached. He wore a complicated looking outfit, consisting of brown leather belts, long sleeves, a high collar, and a pair of long trousers. Behind him flowed some pieces of long fabric, looking like water in their movement. The fabric of his clothes mostly consisted out of pristine white, and shades of light purpel at certain point. Also, he wore a pair of strong boots, and a pair of black fingerless gloves. To sum it up, it was a rather intimidating sight as he approached the Desians, who were half-elves. He constantly held the hilt of his long sword, that was attached to one of his belts. The Desians shut off the electricity t the main gate, letting their master in. Kratos was sent by Mithos to check upon the Angellus Project, seeing how far it had progressed by now. It had been a few weeks since they had implanted the exsphere on a new subject, since the previous one had died by comitting suicide. Mithos Yggdrassill was very eager to lay his hands on this special blue coloured expshere as soon as possible, like a spoiled child that couldn't wait for his birthday present. He had changed. And so did Yuan and Kratos. The once close friends didn't trust each other anymore, despite their ranks. "I've come to see the Angellus project." The auburn haired man said stern. Despite the commanding way of talking, his voice was deep, calm, and above all soothing.

Directly one of the Desians showed him the way. Not that Kratos was unfamiliar in this ranch, it was just that he didn't know where the current host body was being held. The remaining ones closed the gate again, turning on the electricity again, another thing unknown by the Sylvarant inhabitants. For Martel's sake, they still used fire to lighten things up... Not that there was anything wrong with that, but compared to Thete'alla's inhabitants it was more than just primitive. But then again, Thete'alla had known a long time of prosper now, it was not surprising they made a quick developement due to the relatively large amount of mana. The Desian led him around, eventually letting him into a small room. The walls were all very lightbrown coloured, so light that it even looked like orange. There were four corners in total, two of them having a metal chair. Half of the room was meant for visitors, and the other half was behind a wall of something that looked like some mixture of glass and hard plastic. The Desians stood behind him in the door opening. "This is host body A012, Lord Kratos." The half elf said polite and with respect for his superior, even though he was of the race he despised so much. The room seemed to be isolated. When they had been walking through the halls the mourning cries of the prisoners could be heard, being silenced by the sounds of whips afterwards. The man didn't even flinch as he had walked past them, being used to it, more than was healthy.

Kratos's crimson gaze was rested upon the female human that sat at the other side of the room, behind the glass. There was no furniture, or whatsoever. They had probably taken that away so that she couldn't do anything to herself. The light that lit the room was very bright and white, and it'd hurt your eyes if you'd directly look in it. The auburn haired man raised his well shaved chin, causing some of his bangs to fall out of his face. Because of that, the light got into his crimson eyes, making his pupils smaller by adjusting to the light. The woman sat in the corner, with her back against the wall. She wore some ragged brown clothes, the 'uniforms' of the humans that came here. Her legs were raised, and pressed against her chest. She had her arms folded, placed on top of her knees, with her head buried in them. She had long brown hair. Apparantly it hadn't been washed in quite some time, since it seemed dull as well as tangled up at certain parts. The lady appeared to be quite calm, since even Kratos with his inhuman eyesight could barely noticed how she breathed. One way or another, his eyes scanned her body, looking at where the expshere was exactly place. He had an interceptible frown at his face as he couldn't see it. She probably had it hidden somewhere.

"Let me in." The auburn haired Seraphim demanded, and the Desian nodded quickly, fufilling his master's request. Part of the glass like substance opened like a door, and Kratos walked through. The Desian closed the door as soon as the man was inside, in case the prisoner would try to escape. He was just being carefull, not taking any risks. If he'd let that experiment escape, his superiors would make sure he'd pay for it with his life. Besides, Lord Kratos was strong beyond imagenation, the lady couldn't do him any harm, even if she wanted. When she had first come here she was full of life, struggling and resisting whenever possible, but after a few weeks she had calmed down. Mostly to the fact she didn't get enough to eat, couldn't sleep, and the worst; her life was being drained. Not that the Desians had any trouble with that though. Kratos walked over to the girl, his footsteps echoeing in this sealed room. Sound could only be heard from the inside, there was no way for it to pass through the glass material. He stopped his pace as he stood right in front of her. He arms hung limply next to his body, making him seem slightly less intimidating somehow. He stood there, waiting for the girl to at least look up and see who was in front of her. Kratos didn't like the fact that she stubbornly ignored his presence, and prodded her leg lightly with his shoe, as he gave her a cold glance.

As a result, her leg went flat on the ground, and one of her arms followed, hanging limply next to her side, partially touching the ground. The man mumbled something as he partially covered his face with one of his gloved hands, feeling like an idiot. The girl had been sleeping. He lowered his hand again, his stern look reappearing on his well formed face, and he prodded her once again, a bit harder. She shot up, directly backing away, slamming her head into the wall by accident with a loud thud. "Ow!" She exclaimed and squinted her eyes. She raised the arm that had fallen limply on the ground earlier, and rubbed the back of her head as she cringed. "Hmm..." Kratos mumbled as he noticed the blue coloured exsphere at the back of her right hand. It was forming rather well so far, the skin around it already started to cripple. It was a horrible sight, but Kratos could care less. His cold gaze went to the girl herself now. She had sparkling brown eyes, the only things that indicated she wasn't exhausted, unlike the black walls underneath her eyes, and thin arms. Despite her state, she wasn't ugly in the least. She even was worth to be called pretty, and was probably somewhere around twenty or so, he estaminated. She looked up at him, trying to comprehend what was exactly going on. Soon her surprised look turned into that of an angry one. "Sheesh! How many times must you idiots bother me before I can get some rest?!" She yelled at him, clearly being pissed off. Kratos's gaze went back to that of the door opening. The Desian had left, probably to do some other chores. He turned his gaze back at the blue crystal, bent over, and grabbed her hand where it was attached to. He bent down, balancing himself on his toes, so that he wouldn't rip her arm off by accident in the process. He took a closer look at the orb. She desperately tried to pull her hand back, clearly not liking to be touched by random people. It was useless though, she didn't even manage to move this man's hand. "Let go off me!"