Lester Yong & Rosa Fontelera-Yong

CoESC Book 12-23.1: Conflict

In the Realm of Chaos, a sublayer of the world that was beneath three other layers and only afterwards would it touch the Prime Material, a being composed equally of flesh and motes of infinite potential, crouched by a tiny crack. The crack was barely larger than an eyelash…though the comparison only made sense if it had lashes at the moment. It peeked inside, frustrated at the Elemental mists. Its Chaos body tried to push through, but could not go past the filters. Only a tiny, tiny tendri...

CoESC Book 12-22.3: Rescue

“I don’t think they’re are more prisoners left,” Monica said and Yuriko was inclined to agree. She hadn’t stopped checking, but the last ten cells didn’t contain anyone alive. The corpses were half dissolved, much like how Wyldlings would look like if their corpses were left in the open.

There was little doubt what creatures were inside the Fount. Wyldlings, of course, even if the locals called them by a different name. Well, the Creeplings were different enough from swarmli...

CoESC Book 12-22.2: Rescue

When the anti-Chaos relic broke, the only thing Cillian Coinoch felt was relief. Which was then immediately followed by a wave of fear so strong that he collapsed into a heap in mid-stride. He had been pacing in his tiny cell, the only means of exercise he could do. Conversations with fellow prisoners, no sacrificial offerings, were depressing, to say the least, and even Corporal Ortiz had devolved into sour, hopeless mutters.

The Chaos absorber had been filled to the brim since yesterd...

CoESC Book 12-22.1: Rescue

Although Yuriko was definitely not dressed for flight, that didn’t bother her in the slightest. The wind parted against her aura and she stood as if on an immovable platform. Not even her skirt fluttered despite the fact that they were crossing longstrides in less than ten seconds. Well, she was standing upright with her arms crossed under her bosom, Monica Coinoch was flying parallel to the ground and the winds of her passage made her hair and clothes flutter.

The other woman glanced...

CoESC Book 12-21.3: Searching

Monica Coinoch was a petite woman with fierce eyes. Her short-cropped black hair had silver and red streaks, and she was clad in simple clothes. She was slender but her short-sleeved shirt revealed wiry muscles on her arms.

“Cillian is missing?” Yuriko frowned. “I’m sorry to hear that, but how do you expect me to help you?”

“Ah, Blanca too,” Vice-Dean Biera added. “We three were among the last people to see him before he vanished.”

Yuriko asked, “Is there...

CoESC Book 12-21.2: Searching

The day after the duel, Yuriko studied the True Connection spell. A ten-circle spell was the most complex one she’d ever tried, and there were more than two hundred nodes to it. Memorising it turned out to be simple enough for her, even though the spell had different nodes from Message or Sending, which pretty much told her that it worked through different methods than the other two.

The Imperial standard of communication was through messenger cranes which had a range of a couple of l...

CoESC Book 12-21.1: Searching

The standoff between Professor Davar and Professor Farran’ir didn’t last more than a couple of minutes. Blanca Ferron nibbled her lower lip nervously, caught herself, and nearly coloured with such a public display of emotion. Her ears were still stiffly straight, though they twitched with every movement of the two in the middle of the arena floor.

“She matched Eddie blow for blow,” she muttered in disbelief.

Eddie’s Force Orb Bombardment created dozens to hundreds of com...

CoESC Book 12-20.3: Investigation

Yuriko couldn’t help but think her sparring opponent was overdressed. Was this not a friendly contest?

Professor Farran’ir looked like he was dressed for the battlefield. She hadn’t even opted to wear her official robes, which were enchanted with defensive measures. It projected a weak kinetic field that blocked anything moving towards the robe. The runescript patterns were similar to a Chaos Ship’s Protective Sphere, but instead of consuming Animus, the robe used whatever Eleme...

CoESC Book 12-20.2: Investigation

Early on Darkday, the last day of the week and the day Yuriko was to spar with Eddie Farran’ir, found her distracted over breakfast. She had been paying more attention to her connection with her Squires, and a burst of anxiety and anger had coursed through Gwendith’s thread. It had settled already, but she wondered if she should go look for them.

The connection had not been able to provide a direction or distance, since they were still in a Chaos Fount. Add to that, she wasn’t sur...

CoESC Book 12-20.1: Investigation

To say he was surprised when he opened his eyes was an understatement. Cillian fully expected never to wake up again after being captured, and an organisation that was able to capture a Ranger lieutenant, even one returning to the borderlands through a relatively safe route narrowed down the potential culprits. He didn’t even see the face of his captors, nor did he remember what he had been forced to reveal. The recent past was a haze of confusion. There was some pain, of course, but the me...

CoESC Book 12-19.3: Mysteries of the Fount

The steam over the hot springs was pleasantly warm, even if the water itself wasn’t as hot as Yuriko expected. Oh, no doubt if it went any hotter, people would boil in it, but her tolerance for extreme temperatures was just that much higher. Actually, if she just let her Anima loose within the springs, it would not doubt climb to a temperature that was pleasant, though it would probably boil the water away. And then the people in the inn would throw a fuss and that would defeat the purpose ...

CoESC Book 12-19.2: Mysteries of the Fount

Heron met the Ashen Elemental’s charge. His aura spread across his spear, and he swept it at the thing’s torso. The elemental met his attack with a swipe of its arm, and when the two forces met, there was a loud bang and an explosion of sound and dust. Gwendith danced back a couple of steps even as she created several Ice Daggers via the Ice Bolt spell.

Saki cast her Shadow Bolts, which splashed against the elemental’s boiling cloud body, leaving nothing but ripples. The thing hes...

CoESC Book 12-19.1: Mysteries of the Fount

While Yuriko had tutored kids and warriors back during the War for Rumiga, she had never been assigned to teach a class that was part of a greater whole. And while her early lessons were interesting, it didn’t take into account everything that she needed to cover. She also needed to check what the students had learned over the past years, and what she was expected to teach them during the trimester.

As such, she often found herself in the faculty office every afternoon until close to ...

CoESC Book 12-18.3: Tumultuous Undercurrents

“This is showing sincerity?” Sofia grumbled as she moved her body according to the sword forms Professor Davar showed them. Focused mentoring had been over a couple of hours ago, but she and Juliette were still practising.

“Shut up and don’t distract me!” Juliette yelled when her foot shifted a fraction of an inch off the form. The Elemental energy she was calling, Wind in this case, dispersed violently and knocked her off her feet. She got up and rubbed her bottom, hiking up ...

CoESC Book 12-18.2: Tumultuous Undercurrents

After an hour of trekking through the grass paths, Gwendith’s team had gathered over a dozen beast cores from the Molebeasts. The cores were of different hues though were generally a mix of brown and grey. There were a few with reddish streaks along with brown, and those cores came from Molebeasts that shot gouts of flame at Heron before getting skewered.

The fire bolts that were deflected wound up igniting the grass, but contrary to what she feared, it didn’t ignite a conflagration...

CoESC Book 12-18.1: Tumultuous Undercurrents

Juliette Abad stared at the list for a long moment, the Nirian Token in hand. She could scarcely believe that Professor Davar had been willing to give these out as a prize for something so mundane as winning a game in class. Tokens were incredibly useful and exchanging them for a professor’s services was the least it could be exchanged for. But then again, perhaps Professor Davar was given a quota to spend. Heh, she could just see the sly admin doing just that. Since the professor was new, ...

CoESC Book 12-17.3: Professor Davar

Standing on top of the earthen maze, Yuriko’s Anima perception had seeped right through the walls and ceiling easily. The earth and stone were temporary, conjured from a concentration of Elemental energies that were forcibly converted into the materials. After a time, the energies would revert to their component parts and vanish. How long that would take depended on the spell and how much Intent had been infused into the Conjure Earth and Stone spell. For this instance, Yuriko only put in a...

CoESC Book 12-17.2: Professor Davar

Sofia Garcia swallowed as she stared at Professor Davar. She had been referring to her as Yuriko in her mind, simply because that was how they met. It had only been that one time in the library, really, much to her regret. As for her ideas of forging a relationship, well, it seemed more than a little inappropriate now that the professor’s power level was on clear display.

The professor was at least a Magus from how she was able to keep the Flight spell active and the fire beam she use...

CoESC Book 12-17.1: Professor Davar

After a short vacation of a week, Juliette Abad returned to her dormitory room and was just about to head to the registrar to check her new schedule of classes. The Season of Earth was the last trimester of her fifth year as a student. The Season of Fire was typically a break, but of course, some advanced courses and enrichment classes were also offered. For the past couple of school years, Juliette had gone back home to Virtalla City instead of staying. While her father was still young for a...

CoESC Book 12-16.3: Obligations

It had been almost a couple of weeks since Yuriko signed on as a guest professor at Niria Academy. In the end, she turned down the label of tenured professor, saying that the title was too much for someone who didn’t even know of the academy a Season ago. So a guest professor she was. The pay was practically the same and she was more than willing to teach a few advanced combat classes during her stay. As for Radiant Infusion, she was hesitant simply because she had not tried to condense Rad...

CoESC Book 12-16.2: Obligations

After a couple of days’ recovery, Juliette was once again back to peak condition. Her flat mate had been acting strange yesterday, but she’d been too lazy then to investigate what had Sofia excited.

This morning, as usual, the plucky redhead had already woken up at dawn and gone to practice, even though today was the written exam!

Well, Juliette wouldn't waste time running around. She’d have a calm breakfast, read the morning gazette, and enjoy herself until it was time to g...

CoESC Book 12-16.1: Obligations

Sofia Garcia, fifth-year Niria Academy student and aspiring Battle Magus, yawned as the dawn’s light penetrated through the dormitory’s windows. As usual, the light hit her directly in the eye, which prompted her to roll away. And, because she stuffed pillows on the side of her bunk bed, when she rolled that way and felt the resistance, instinctively rolled the other way. Which then caused her to roll off the side of her bed.

The sudden sensation of falling woke her up completely as...

CoESC Book 12-15.3: Initiate

The rest of the fourth layer consisted of more arenas, training rooms, and laboratories. Yuriko watched a couple more battles, noting that the weapons were very much real and wounds even more so. There was an attached infirmary next to each arena, and all of the students who participated in the periodical exam went there even if there were no visible wounds.

The dark-haired rapier girl sat with her back to a healer, her shirt and armoured coat pulled down to her waist when Yuriko entere...

CoESC Book 12-15.2: Initiate

Most of the students got out by the third layer, leaving Yuriko and the others alone in the cable carriage by the time they crossed the fourth level. Now that they were close, Yuriko could see that the volcano was terraced, allowing each layer to be level. From a distance, the way the mountain was cut concealed the terracing and hid the smaller buildings from below.

Soon enough, they alighted from the carriage and walked towards Niria Hall which was only a hundred paces or so from the p...

CoESC Book 12-15.1: Initiate

With the primer in one hand and the basic spellbook in the other, Yuriko began her research. Which lasted about ten minutes before she had to stop and meditate to soothe her aching head. Gwendith sat next to her, reading over her shoulder, then chuckled when the books were put down.

“Getting bad?” Gwendith asked.

“Not yet, but if I push, it will be,” Yuriko grumbled.

She knew that the knowledge locked within the pages of the books was important, but she still could n...

CoESC Book 12-14.3: Nirlith City

There were two ways to use a scrying spell, and Cillian was instructed to use the first. Direct observance meant that the spell had to have a target, and it would be provided by links. Those could be memory, a specially prepared item by the target of such a spell, or a well enough likeness.

Cillian did not have the second, nor the third. He had considered asking for a likeness of Lady Davar from Lord Muryh, who had a collection of small postcards that he painted himself. But the man was...

CoESC Book 12-14.2: Nirlith City

“What does an apprenticeship normally entail for you?” Yuriko asked after she put down the cup. The tea blend held fruity notes, but as she let her senses linger on the tea, she detected deeper notes that complemented the initial taste and a discordant point that made the rest of it taste much better in comparison. Only when she took one of the pastries and ate it did she realise why the discordant taste was there. It was to complement this one. Hmmm.

“Lady Yuriko?”

“Hm...

CoESC Book 12-14.1: Nirlith City

Tangled in the bedsheets and panting from exhaustion, Yuriko and Gwendith cuddled in the afterglow of their bouts of passion. Gwendith’s breath tickled her neck as her lover nuzzled up against her. Yuriko sighed and pulled the smaller girl closer.

Evenings such as these distracted her from the fact that she was unlikely to see Rumiga for decades, at least. But there was a little ray of hope. They had decided to register under the Adventurers’ Guild after all, mostly because of one t...

CoESC Book 12-13.3: Adventurer's Guild

Laura Mondero could barely keep herself from shivering. In fear. In awe. Or perhaps to shake the surprise and keep herself from staying stunned.

Lady Yuriko.

Yuriko Mishala Davar, she introduced herself, so perhaps Lady Davar would be more appropriate. At least it would have been, but Lady Yuriko told them to use her first name.

There was little doubt of her rank now. Her exposed power would have ranked her as a True Magus, which was two levels above her own Magus rank. But ...

CoESC Book 12-13.2: Adventurer's Guild

By morning, the town had regained a bit of normalcy. Yuriko sat on the railings while she beheld the vistas she hadn’t been able to pay attention to the day before.

One of the few things that caught her attention was the presence of water wheels on the river. The wheels were attached to buildings where she supposed they milled grain or something of the sort. There were more than a few buildings with smokestacks and equipped with the same smoke catcher.

The two districts also did...