Jade focused back on the physical world and his Cosmic Energy bombarded him with information on what was going on around him. Jade was annoyed at the influx of information which felt like someone was nagging him but when he surveyed it he noticed why. Someone was watching him!

He looked up into the air at the location where the person was watching him from above. It was placed to directly overlap with the sun was what his energy told him but he saw nothing there. He focused his senses on the area his Cosmic Energy had told him about and he found an object that was desperately camouflaging itself from his senses.

He lost the feeling of the object and gained it as he and the object struggled against each other. The object began to try to make Jade think it was an illusion and forget it when it noticed that it couldn’t hide itself, but Jade’s mind was too strong and complex to be influenced.

The object began to hide itself again when it saw that it couldn’t hypnotize Jade but Jade was fed up with this game of tag. He flew up into the air towards the location of the object, it seemed like he should fly toward the sun to reach it but he sensed spatial manipulation, a distortion of space around the object that bent light and made it look lit it was overlapping with the sun from any angle.

Jade was quite impressed by the level of effort that was put into the disguising of the object but now that he saw the distorted space, the objects location couldn’t be clearer. Before he knew it he had teleported to the location of the object and realized what it was, a feather.

The feather started flying away when it sensed him but he held it before it could get any distance. A psychic signal came from the feather and was sent toward Jade’s head but it was teleported away by a portal that appeared when Jade felt apprehension towards the signal. Jade thought ‘The soul glyphs are so convenient; I don’t even have to do any manipulation myself’.

Another psychic signal emitted from the feather but this time it went towards the atmosphere. A hologram of a dark skin Indian woman with golden irises was formed and she looked at Jade with a smile. She said with and Indian accent “Good afternoon, my name is Avatari, what’s yours?’

Jade said “How are you talking? And what is this feather?” Avatari looked at him like a kindergarten student that just asked her what two plus two was. She answered “I’m manipulating the psychic energy in the feather and sending it to the air in a specific pattern that makes it vibrate and travel like sound. I’m doing the same for the light also to make this illusion. The feather is my creation, an angel feather”.

Jade said “It’s a good one, can I keep it please?” Avatari chuckled a bit and said “If you give me something of equal value maybe. I’m sorry for spying on you, but you should be happy to know that you’re one of the only 3 people that managed to touch the feather. That’s why I’m willing to trade”.

Jade thought ‘She’s a smooth talker alright. I already feel like selling her something’. Jade let the feather go and said “I won’t take the feather but what do you have on sale”.

Avatari chuckled and said “It’s less of what I have and more of what you want. You see I’m the best creator in the world so ask as your heart desires and I’ll see if I can give it to you in time”.

Jade chuckled and said with an Indian accent of his own “I’m sorry but I’m the best creator in the world so you can stop fingering yourself and ask me what you want and I’ll see if I can give you today or tomorrow. For the right price of course!”

Avatari looked at Jade with an expression of confusion, anger and defiance. She said “That can’t be true. I am the best. All of India, Arabia and even China have felt a touch of my creations and they admit I’m the best there is! Who the hell are you?”

Jade laughed with a smug expression and said “I don’t make cheap things that can be sold to just anyone. Every single one of my creations is a masterpiece so not everyone can buy them. Hence why you never heard of me, the good stuff is available in some places but the best is always hard to find”

Avatari was surprised by Jade’s statement but quickly came with a counter. She said “The best works need a good amount of practice and perfection to create. I have mastered what I do by repeating and improving time and time again. None of your fancy creations can compare to that!”

Jade shook his head and smiled, showing his disagreement and said “That’s only for rookies, for an accomplished veteran like me, time to study, acquire knowledge, and planning is required to create each masterpiece. When a creation is done, improvements can be made, not by just rinsing and repeating but by acquiring even more knowledge, observing the workings of the creation, and making another creation that is on a completely different level than the precious one.”

Avatari had a look of worry grow on her face as she heard Jade, the worry gave way to a daring and defying expression and she said “I refuse to accept! I. Am. The. Best! I challenge you to a 3 round creator competition. First we will compare the most common and/or cheapest creations we have made and see who is better at efficiently make powerful creations. The second round will involve us comparing the creations we can make today! Before 12 midnight, to judge our capacity to quickly make masterpieces on the fly. In the third round we will compare the creations we can make in a month’s time to see who is better at improving on their past creations.

Do not resist my challenge oh… oh… What’s your name?”

Jade held back a laugh and said “Jade, I accept your challenge but who will judge? I will most times see my creations as the best so I will rarely ever agree to a judgment that is not in their favor”.

Avatari said “True, why don’t we pick one person we know is good at judging what we make and bring them to act as a judge and we will search for someone who hasn’t used any of our technology but isn’t too distant from the creation field as the final and most important judge. Of course each judge’s decision can be challenged by us and if we prove the judge wrong, the judge must change the decision.

Jade huh? You have the same name as the stealer of men; you are going to have it bad if any audience voting is involved”.

Jade thought ‘I should probably hide my identity since I don’t resemble my former self. Those looking for revenge and heroes of justice will actively try to bring me down’. Jade said “I know right? *sigh* It just had to be someone with my name”.

Avatari smiled and said “I’ll give you a nice tip for accepting my challenge, when you tell a lie, it is best to always deceive yourself into believing your own lie before saying it. Even if you can control your facial expressions perfectly with your body your powerful psyche will give you away like it just did now. Don’t worry I won’t tell anyone who you are”.

Jade stared at the woman in shock which made her feel extremely good. She said “We will submit our creations for assessment in a month’s time”. Jade was confused and asked “Where? And how will we ensure we didn’t cheat?”

Avatari smiled excitedly and said “I will make a world announcement by 12 midnight. I’m gathering all the surviving humans and sentient monsters who wish to avoid more bloodshed and go through the next event together. We will gather in a specific place which I will not expose until the announcement since I don’t want anyone to trap the place”.

Jade said “That’s a good idea, great job Avatari. I’ll be there! Now about the cheating, I’m not a King so I can’t give my word”. Avatari said “No worries I have a contract privilege”.

Jade’s IP said ‘A Guardian Angel has given you a Covenant. Do you accept it?’ and a screen appeared showing:

[No Cheating

Perfect Candor

Duration: One month

Context: Duel of Creators]

Jade said ‘I accept’ and his IP said ‘Done’.