Lester Yong & Rosa Fontelera-Yong

CoESC Book 11-16.2: Swordmaster

Their very first clash resulted in Yuriko’s loss. A sunblade pair struck at the Chaos swordsman, going for an overhead slice. A second pair moved to strike from his right. The way she angled the blades, it was as if she was there in front of her foes, controlling the weapons with both hands. In fact, she could feel the way the sunblades’ hilts pressed against her palm. The Radiant gauntlet felt like an extension of herself, and because she felt that way, and the fact that her Anima, Animu...

CoESC Book 11-16.1: Swordmaster

The attacks came as if they were expecting her to enter the Chaos Fortress, which, Yuriko had to admit, was more than likely. Her desire to be stealthy had gone the same route as her desire for her Mien to stop making people infatuated with her or in other words, useless.

Eli’Theria’s armour was more than enough to protect against the first blows, which were made of congealed Chaos that would infect whatever material it touched and morph it randomly into something else. It was a com...

CoESC Book 11-15.3: Chaos Fortress

The sunblade danced in the air, mimicking how Yuriko would have moved it had she been holding it instead of directing it from afar. She kept the fighting within her perception range, which helped immensely with her control. It was one thing to try a sword dance while not being able to feel and see around the weapon, and quite another when she had a bird’s eye view of the fight. Well, not just from above, but from the front, behind, underneath, and all sides, too. She forced her body to rema...

CoESC Book 11-15.2: Chaos Fortress

The next morning, well before dawn, Yuriko continued her journey. The Arclight Sword was strapped to her waist and Eli’Theria was back inside her Anima. Unlike Fri’Avgi, she couldn’t summon the Colossus from elsewhere, so she either carried her or was inside the piloting core.

She had an inkling that if she progressed through the layers of the Orb of Authority, she would eventually be able to do so. Perhaps if she unlocked it completely? Either way, she was completely incapable of...

CoESC Book 11-15.1: Chaos Fortress

First off, holding Eli’Theria in her Anima wasn’t at all like Fri’Avgi. Yuriko gritted her teeth at the sudden strain, and she realised that about half of her Anima reach was…occupied with holding the Colossus within her. About fifty paces worth of reach, though that didn’t mean she couldn’t extend her perception aura as far as it could go. Rather, it felt as if fifty paces of reach was compressed down into her body and could do nothing other than hold Eli’Theria within.

T...

CoESC Book 11-14.3: To the Chaos Fortress

“Knight Davar,” the messenger said as she extended an envelope to Yuriko. “I’m afraid the militia admin office doesn’t have good news. These are the records of your brother Kato Davar’s deployment and last contact.”

Yuriko practically snatched the proffered paperwork off the woman and ripped the envelope open. She scanned the papers, squelching a burgeoning headache by sheer force of Will, and skimmed through the contents. The messenger woman simply stood at attention.

CoESC Book 11-14.2: To The Chaos Fortress

By the time she thought to finish her training session, the Radiant Sun had fallen below the Veil and her tummy complained bitterly of neglect.

GROWL!!!!

Yup, bitterly. Yuriko chuckled to herself as she floated off the boulder and headed back to Misttyre. Her Anima reach had expanded to forty-five paces, her Radiant Body was at ninety-three percent while her Radiant Anima reached the threshold of eighty percent. She was capable of advancing to Transformation now if she so...

CoESC Book 11-14.1: To The Chaos Fortress

The fifth droplet went down untouched by any force. Yuriko kept track of it while carefully keeping her mind blank. Let the Threads of Fate determine what the fifth would improve.

And as she watched, something took hold of it, squeezed it down to a tiny grain of sand, and a moment later, it vanished. Yuriko was left blinking in confusion, but somehow, some of her worries, and her aches and pains, faded away.

She waited for a couple of minutes, but nothing else happened. Shrugging ...

CoESC Book 11-13.3: Following Tracks

Yuriko settled next to Eli’Theria. Fri’Avgi had been back inside her Anima since without the artefact, the Colossus was inoperable. That was a better lock than anything else she could device. Then again, without an Orb of Authority, Eli’Theria would not allow anyone else to control her either.

Anyway, she debated whether to drink the Ambrosia right then and there, but wondered if it would be better to do it where she had more privacy. She thought about doing it inside Eli’Theria...

CoESC Book 11-13.2: Following Tracks

The chamber within the Implacable Jade was empty save for Finan and the varied implements needed to enact the Ritual of Connection.  He sat in the exact middle of the ritual circle, in a meditative pose. His legs were crossed, his feet over his knees and the back of his hands resting over his heels. It wasn’t the most comfortable of poses, but it was the one prescribed by the ritual. Nothing could go wrong.

The outer circle was carved into the steel deck, inlaid with Chaos dust, ...

CoESC Book 11-13.1: Following Tracks

Legate Iola Brygos’ following actions were brutal. Yuriko couldn’t help but gape as the crystal spears and axes wielded by the crystal warriors hacked down at the Steam tank’s armour plates, weapons points, and wheels. There was no visible hatch to enter or exit, but they were already chopping open one of their own.

The mini-Steam cannons attempted to open fire at the crystalline warriors, but they simply absorbed the attack, deflected the bullets, and then hacked at the exposed t...

CoESC Book 11-12.3: Festering Wound

With every Jin of power, Yuriko could muster, the twin orichalcum armament blades cut down on the Steam tank’s turret. The jagged edges of the third dance in ascendance, Radiant energy suffused along the edge, as well as the Ender’s Waltz brief peek into the possible futures, she was more than certain to hit.

She briefly contemplated activating the fourth dance, worried about the Animus expenditure, before she scrapped the idea. In midswing, any minute change and unplanned power use...

CoESC Book 11-12.2: Festering Wound

“Legate Brygos,” Yuriko said through Eli’Theria’s voice. She tried to keep the volume low and somewhat succeeded. No one farther than a hundred paces from the Colossus would have heard. “I come from the Watchtower,” she continued, while the red-haired woman rubbed her ear with a finger.

“I thought so. A message?”

“Yes, but it can wait after this.”

“True.”

Iola Brygos’ words were punctuated by a barrage of cannon shells that slammed down on Eli...

CoESC Book 11-12.1: Festering Wound

From above the plains and hills, Yuriko and Eli’Theria couldn’t help but gape at the ongoing battle. The village at the foot of the mountain, Misttyre, had its Protective Dome up. Even so, it wasn’t being attacked by anyone. The village after that was surrounded by barbarians and Federation troops. The dome was almost gone, and there was fighting going on at the battlements.

South of that village was another battlefield entirely. A horde of yellowish creatures surrounded two power...

CoESC Book 11-11.3: Things Left Undone

Yuriko followed the road towards the Imperial Pass, flying just a couple of dozen paces above it. The village nearest Faron’s Crossing, Sonza, lay abandoned. Most of the residents probably moved to Faron’s Crossing over the past year, and while few of the houses had been burned, most only showed signs of looting. It was easy enough to distinguish who looted which house as she doubted the militia would be riding land raptors, or would bother to destroy the buildings.

The next village...

CoESC Book 11-11.2: Things Left Undone

It didn’t take more than an hour to fly to the Watchtower, and the speed was mainly because Yuriko didn’t want to jostle the injured. It was actually much worse than she expected, and she hoped that Rorke Dinia didn’t die while in transit. Broken limbs aside, he was actually bleeding internally. She’d done what she could, even getting his permission to try and cauterize the wounds from within, but that only slowed the drip. He’d fallen unconscious by the time they arrived.

The...

CoESC Book 11-11.1: Things Left Undone

“What?” Yuriko blurted despite herself. She clapped a hand over her lips as soon afterwards but the Chaos Lord’s lopsided grin only grew wider.

“Come now, I’m sure your ears work properly. I said, I have something of yours.”

“And what would that be?” Yuriko asked sourly as she shifted her feet to the right, attempting to squeeze her way out of the tomb. Her light covered the entire space, but the void around the Chaos Duke was slowly growing. She could feel Threads...

CoESC Book 11-10.3: Picking Up the Pieces

The man with the crescent and empty circle tattoo on his cheeks smiled. It was an empty smile. Derisive eyes. Green as the colour of Chaos. He raised an eyebrow at Yuriko, then snorted at Avos Shillogu, who was big enough that his tentacles were pressed against the ceiling.

“Ah, so we meet again,” he said. The Chaos Duke. The same one that dealt the fatal blow to Avos Zarek.

Yuriko could barely move. The pressure against her Anima was such that her reach was suddenly compresse...

CoESC Book 11-10.2: Picking Up the Pieces

The expansion of Iola’s Domain caught the two Federation rulers by surprise. How could they not? The last time they experienced it was underneath Rumiga City wherein most of the space Iola could expand it to would simply be solid earth and stone.

Crystals grew out of the hillside, creating a circle more than four hundred paces wide. Her Domain had already doubled in size after a couple of decades since her advancement, though she focused more on control than anything else.

Being...

CoESC Book 11-10.1: Picking Up the Pieces

The Imperial pass has been blocked. Legate Iola Brygos glared at the fallen rocks, boulders, and water that had been diverted to block the mountain range’s lowest point. The Zarek was nearly a hundred longstrides wide at its thickest, and up to three thousand paces high at its peaks. The lowest point was at nine hundred twenty seven paces high, on a narrow valley pass.

The Empire had made treaties with the Avos to keep that pass sacrosanct. Zarek should not have altered the elevation,...

CoESC Book 11-9.3: Avos Matters

“So where is it?” Yuriko asked the giant boar Avos.

“What is?”

“The nexus?” Yuriko tilted her head in confusion which Shillogu mirrored. The sight of a boar head that was about half the size of her body tilting sideways like a curious sparrow almost set off a gale of giggles, and from the muffled snort from Krystal, she wasn’t the only one tickled.

“What do you mean? You’re already standing in one.”

“You mean this patch of bank?”

“Yes, a...

CoESC Book 11-9.2: Avos Matters

The opening moves were hot and heavy. Krystal hung back beside Mikel, using her Plasma Caster to chip away at the nameless. She and the others were just behind Shillogu’s charge, who opened up such a large path through the woods it was a wonder any trees were left once he was done. The forest around him grew quickly, she knew, achieving a state of old woods in less than a year.

The herd of boars spread out across the lake, and the vanguard slammed into the barbarian work teams, impali...

CoESC Book 11-9.1: Avos Matters

When Yuriko finally made it to Shillogu Lake, which took her only a couple of hours instead of the several days that it had taken her team back then, she skidded to a halt at the banks, staring at the pandemonium. There was a light fog just above the lake, which had obscured the view from the skies, otherwise, Yuriko would have seen it already. She couldn’t recall it that had been normal before, but it was here now.

The lake was quite shallow except for the very centre. The water with...

CoESC Book 11-8.3: Rumbling Earth

The Gemheart under the Watchtower was roughly a pace wide and looked like a blue diamond in a brilliant cut. Four metal prongs held it aloft by the tip, while silvery metal connected around it radiated towards the wall and ceiling. Runescript lines were carved along the metal strip and Kiyo could see denatured Animus flowing into the Gemheart, and slightly aspected Animus flowing out. She could trace the lines of energy flowing into the Watchtower, which supplied Animus to keep the Protective...

CoESC Book 11-8.2: Rumbling Earth

Armsmaster Trevor Byrne squinted as he saw a fireball rushing from the central district back towards the western wall. The Protective Dome was set so that anything coming from this side of it would not be obstructed, especially something really fast and powerful. As for what that was, he could easily guess, and when the golden ball of energy passed by, he saw Miss Davar as well as her brothers, and Miss Niamh Randal flying by. That young Miss Davar could fly, and easily carry three people wit...

CoESC Book 11-8.1: Rumbling Earth

The village of Misttyre at the foot of the Zarek Mountains, on the eastern side of the Imperial Pass, had suddenly been upgraded to a township. It should have been a city, but the new leadership would prefer reclaiming Rumiga City and its Chaos Channel over creating a new capital.

What was once a charming village filled with red brick cottages was now several times larger than before, and protected by a tall wall and several towers that created a powerful Protective Dome. The core of th...

CoESC Book 11-7.3: Hidden Counters

Wiping out the swarmling nests within the Depths would have taken more days than what the Silver Tiger needed to cross that part of the Tidelands.

Yuriko worked with the time she had, knowing that getting distracted would only prove detrimental to her goals. Still, her Radiant Body Refinement, Radiant Anima Refinement, and her reach had grown considerably. It was certainly a task that she’d never done before, but the ease at which she accomplished it somehow diminished her gains, afte...

CoESC Book 11-7.2: Hidden Counters

The patterns and puzzles presented by the gate would've been difficult to solve by a single person, but the Watcher was more than one Chaos Lord. Every incarnation, though they were ultimately part of him, was also distinct and unique to each other. Each one could think and decide on their own, and each presented a unique perspective to the Watcher’s true self.

As for that self, he had chosen to fracture and shatter it. A radical and nearly suicidal idea, but one that bore bountiful f...

CoESC Book 11-7.1: Hidden Counters

Riley Siofra Davar charged down the tunnel, his Plasma Caster held at the hip. He had enough control over his Animus that the unwieldy position would still be effective as long as his target was less than fifty paces away. He didn’t want to keep the weapon held at his shoulder as that had the tendency to narrow his focus too much. Sure, he was in a tunnel, and the path was narrow by definition, but there were many hidden nooks and crannies, not to mention small side branches that those filt...

CoESC Book 11-6.3: Eyes Turned

Yuriko watched the fleet from the Silver Tiger’s bridge. The luxury yacht had moved from the centre of the formation to the right edge. The converted merchant vessels hung back, while the proper warships took the lead.

Legate Jiro’s Domain was water, as far as Yuriko knew. She wasn’t certain what the limitations were, but he was able to conjure and manipulate large quantities of it even without the support of the fleet. Now, it was as if the Planar Suppression Formation had turned...