Lester Yong & Rosa Fontelera-Yong

CoESC Book 10-19.3: Eli'Theria

A gash appeared on the sludge creature’s face, turning into a grotesque smirk. Yuriko’s sunblade streaked towards its neck, and it bent backwards out of the way. At the same time, one of its lower limbs lashed upwards into a kick, well out of her line of sight. It was a good thing she didn’t just rely on her normal senses…

Yuriko twisted out of the way, but then got blindsided by another strike, one that was completely invisible to her Anima perception, and smacked her on her le...

CoESC Book 10-19.2: Eli’Theria

The Furnace creature roared in pain, the first time it did in the battle. A moment later it carved out the piece of torso that had the mandala stuck on it, and flung it away. A chunk a few inches to a side bounced off into the distance, all the while trailing disintegration dust.

Yuriko pursed her lips, both happy and disappointed at the same time. She managed to see how the runescript pattern worked, but she instinctively knew that the efficiency and placement was horrible. The slownes...

Catch up time!

We'll be having a posting break from July 24-28 (next week!) and will resume regular posting on July 31. It sucks to have to take all these breaks but for sanity, it's necessary, too.

Thank you so much for all the good vibes from everyone.

Things have been getting better offline, thankfully. Things are falling back into better order than they had been in the past few months and while it's not all 100% yet, better is still better.

We do have a little treat lined up for next w...

CoESC Book 10-19.1: Eli’Theria

The feel of the dreamscape was unmistakable, even if she wasn’t lingering in the uppermost layers. Yuriko’s Anima spread, but of course, there was nothing to see. Other than the threads connecting her to Fate and to those she knew and was entangled with.

She had a moment of confusion. Why was she here? What was her purpose, and what was she to fight? A glimmer of silvery light drew her eye. It came from the depths below, and with a silent push, her dream body sank downwards into the...

CoESC Book 10-18.3: Crucible

‘Eli can’t stay awake.’ Fri’Avgi said sadly when the Colossus’ glowing eyes faded back to mundane metal.

Yuriko shook off her surprise. The name had just come to her as though she knew it her whole life. Eli’Theria. An Ancient’s companion artefact much like Fri’Avgi had been. However, unlike her greatsword, Eli’Theria had not been a personal weapon, but a platform shared by Ancient combatants, and Damien had long ago been a pilot. Either that or he’d been on...

CoESC Book 10-18.2: Crucible

The Colossus’ eyes, which were probably as large as her head, seemed to focus on Yuriko’s eyes. She could almost see the gleam of interest coming from it, but a moment later, whatever it was disappeared and the giant construct was again nothing more than runescript etched metal.

“Yuri!”

The next moment, she felt someone enfold her into a hug. She was lifted off her feet and squeezed, but even though the figure wore one of the light infantry armour, her condensed Anima prev...

CoESC Book 10-18.1: Crucible

“Whoa! Ancestors, boy! You got big!” There was a desperate edge to Balliol’s laugh, but his embrace would have been hard enough to make Heron squeak if he hadn’t grown much stronger. His tackle had almost knocked his old man over, but the armour he wore must have been well-balanced, as he was quite nimble even while wearing it.

“Dad!” Heron’s eyes watered and he hugged tighter.

Dad patted his back and said, “Thank the Ancestors. I’ve missed you, Tegan and Teresa,...

CoESC Book 10-17.3: Arrival

“I see something. A structure,” Selene Nimdahl said when she reported back. The entire group was moving at a steady pace west, following the movement of the Radiant Sun’s reflection on the ceiling. Yuriko was at the centre, along with most of the others. The beastkin were at her left and right, a couple of dozen paces away, while half of the marines were acting as rear guard.

Edison, Douglas, and Darren were walking behind her, their eyes darting to and fro, and every now and then...

CoESC Book 10-17.2: Arrival

The journey through the portal felt nearly the same as when they first went through the portal back in Synkrasia. It was the same feeling of time passing by, while they were stuck in a daze, well, at least, for most of the others. With Fri’Avgi out, Yuriko’s consciousness wasn’t affected by the Chaos tunnel, and she felt every subjective second of the journey.

Or rather, it might have taken hours. Her timesense had stopped working as soon as they went through, so she had nothing t...

CoESC Book 10-17.1: Arrival

Machine gun fire and anti-air flak wasn’t a problem for Yuriko, but this was the first time many of her companions flew, and definitely the first time they came under fire. Edison, for one, had started shrieking in panic, Douglas was staring slack-jawed, and Darren had her eyes squeezed shut, and she was murmuring prayers to the One Above.

The beastkin were snarling and eager to fight, while her marines were focused and thumbing their weapons. All of them were carrying their modified ...

CoESC Book 10-16.3: Return

Crossing the Norrinth Empire, from the northwest part of it where they made landfall, down to its border to the Sanctus Kingdom, where they were to meet with an intelligence agent, took about ten days.

At first, slogging through the snow was exhausting. Yuriko ached to fly and carry everyone with her, but doing so would probably alert every Confederate Warlock on the continent. Right now, everyone else was using an obfuscation spell card. She was the exception since, well, it wasn’t j...

CoESC Book 10-16.2: Return

It was snowing throughout the next week. Harbourtown, which was just east of Lindorn, and set within the narrow bay the river flowed out into, was practically covered in white powder. Yuriko pondered the sea, which was half-covered with floating ice. The town was on the northern side of the bay entrance, and she could see an old castle near the spit. Actually, now that she focused her Enhanced Sight, she could see several artillery cannons set on the walls, the barrels poking out.

The o...

CoESC Book 10-16.1: Return

Yuriko didn’t know how much time she spent meditating. She had focused her efforts on trying to figure out how to convert Radiant energy back into Animus, or even ambient Chaos. Most of the Radiant energy she used actually came from her Essence core, which regenerated to its full capacity within a minute. As for how much her reserves were, she was embarrassed to realise that she didn’t know.

Her Radiant reserves, which were located near her Animus core, in the Ennoia lattice actuall...

CoESC Book 10-15.3: A Promise Kept

The grey-furred blood ape sat on his haunches, with his hands raised up, palms facing them. Gwendith exchanged looks with the twins, and the soldier driving the car. The young man had a twisted expression on his face, however, and had a white knuckled grip on his gun.

“Don’t make a move,” Gwendith said softly, voiced pitched just so only the soldier could hear. He glanced at her, swallowed convulsively, then spat at the snow.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Gwendith got out of the...

CoESC Book 10-15.2: A Promise Kept

Gwendith’s aid mission quickly ran into trouble. Not two longstrides from the base, just as they were headed into the mountains, they were ambushed by the crimson apes. Sitting next to the driver of the transport, she grabbed her Animus rifle and raised it to aim. The weapon had been loaned to her by the Karcellians, and had been adjusted to handle a heavier Animus load. She enhanced the rifle’s barrel with her Ennoia, infusing Cold energy into it.

The Karcellian’s scientific conc...

CoESC Book 10-15.1: A Promise Kept

A loud boom shook the air as a plume of dust shot up high into the skies. It was thick, brown, and billowing, obscuring nearly everything within its ambit. Spurts of golden Radiance flared near the bottom along with spotlights of darkness so black it drew in a corona of white.

Yuriko danced and spun away from the crater even as the Remnant waved his quarterstaff in her direction. Only the fact that she could see the darklight coalesce into darts did she know that the seemingly fruitless...

CoESC Book 10-14.3: The Living Monument

For the past several days, Gwendith had felt disquiet every time Yuriko set off on her patrols. She and the others were stationed in one of the forward outposts and with them were a couple of companies of infantry and field artillery. They held a commanding presence on a hilltop, with a clear view of the league around them. Up north was a tall cliff face, a mountain wall, really, except that there was a pass along the ridge that led to the interior. Douglas told her that the valley had been m...

CoESC Book 10-14.2: The Living Monument

A few more days passed since the prototype weapons were put to use. In response, the daemons raided in bigger groups, but that also made them far more visible.

Yuriko intercepted dozens of raids a week and slaughtered hundreds of crimson apes. She made a habit of spreading her perceptive aura as far as it would go, and she often caught a six-legged lizard or two with every group. The reptilian daemons always tried to run from her, but they were slower and weaker than the apes, so she al...

CoESC Book 10-14.1: The Living Monument

Yuriko sighed as she reviewed the carnage. The crimson apes managed to make it into the outpost, and she hadn’t noticed until it was already well underway. She was only here to join her friends, as she’d spent the last couple of weeks patrolling the entire length of the Karcellian mainland.

In fact, this attack was deep into the defensive zone and it occurred to her that this might not have been isolated. She felt for the connection she had with Gwendith and Heron, as those two had ...

CoESC Book 10-13.3: Highlands

Harris Carron pulled the trigger of his bolt-action rifle, half wishing that he had been issued one of the new assault rifles instead of his buddy, Morton Cole. That worthy had sprayed all of his bullets in less than three seconds and had probably not hit the charging daemons more than a couple of times. There he was, a few cubits away, fumbling with his magazines.

Harris snorted in annoyance, even as his hands trembled and barely suppressed fear. The campaign to liberate the highlands ...

CoESC Book 10-13.2: Highlands

“Where have you been?” Yuriko’s sharp tone took Casper Nichols aback, and he answered instinctively.

“Across the ocean and inspecting the…wait! Why are you asking me that?” His eyes grew wider than seemed humanly possible, though since he was facing her, nobody else noticed.

Yuriko sniffed. “I wanted to talk to you the day after, but you fled rather quickly.”

“Who wouldn’t? After you beat me up and broke my life’s work?” he groused.

“You were...

CoESC Book 10-13.1: Highlands

By the time a huffing Gwendith managed to arrive on the hilltop where the army had set up, the battle was already concluding. She stifled her irritation as she surveyed the utter devastation her beloved had caused.

There were clouds of ash from the disintegrating daemon apes, as well as a few infantry corpses littered on the slopes. Once she used Enhanced Senses, she was able to discern what was happening on the opposite hilltop. The two crests’ elevation was only within a couple of p...

CoESC Book 10-12.3: Daemon Hunt

A couple of hours after dawn found Yuriko and her team in the town hall along with several of her students. Douglas Hart had an expression that was between excitement and trepidation, and it looked like he didn’t know which one to wear. Darren Worrington was there, too, wearing a trenchcoat and a pistol concealed under it. Both apprentice mages had a full deck of spell cards in their holders, as well as a couple of casting rings. The amount of ambient Chaos held within the material, reactiv...

Health Break!

We've needed a lot of these with all the things that have been going on offline.

We'll be having a posting break next week from June 19-23, 2023. Regular posting will resume on June 26, 2023.

We're hopeful that things will improve offline in the coming weeks though so please cross your fingers for us, too. It'll be great to be able to put in more energy into the things we've had planned for the series. <3

- L&R

CoESC Book 10-12.2: The Daemon Hunt

The eastern coast was several leagues away from Fordja, more than twenty, actually. But Yuriko felt there was little need to hurry there. The aircraft penetrated deeper into Karcellian airspace and whatever they were dropping were also falling closer to the city.

Boom! Boom!

There were bombers, too, and she could see the KAF sortie from their bases. Wide beams of light flared from the ground, brightening the clouds. But the Confederate aircraft were too scattered to be ea...

CoESC Book 10-12.1: The Daemon Hunt

“Where have you two been?” Gwendith asked sternly with her fists on her hips. She stood just outside the cottage’s front door. Yuriko and Heron only reached Fordja a couple of hours after dawn. Gwendith’s gaze shifted between the two of them and her eyes narrowed when neither of them met each other’s eyes and Yuriko’s cheeks were still tinted pink.

Yuriko cleared her throat, turned to Heron and said, “Thanks for accompanying me. I’ll see you later.”

The young man...

CoESC Book 10-11.3: Shards

Heron would have wanted to meditate too, but looking at Yuriko sitting with her back against the oak tree, her Anima boiling around her frame, and completely oblivious to everything around her, he couldn’t.

Midnight had passed, and honestly, he was sleepy. He bit his lip to keep his consciousness as he kept watch. This plane, Irvalla, was a pleasant dream. It had been filled with people living their lives, even while their nation was at war.

The Eternal Empire was always at war....

CoESC Book 10-11.2: Shards

A strange sensation filled Yuriko’s mind. It was pulling at her, down into dreams. She knew that if she succumbed, she’d fall asleep. Then who knew when she’d awaken?

Not yet. Not yet.

She glared at Casper Nichols, who flinched and scooted away, all while his bunny ears lay flat against his head. His nose was twitching nervously, as were his whiskers. Ancestors, that was cute…

Shaking her head, she growled. “What…was…it? Where did you find the seed?”

He...

CoESC Book 10-11.1: Shards

“Five thousand years...” the rabbit/bunny/hare man growled. He was still in his seated meditation pose, but floating a good pace above the ground. “So much time spent Shaping this forsaken fragment, and now, you…Ancient, you come waltzing in, and upset the balance.”

Yuriko stared at the man, who had been the First Archon, Casper Nichols. Or rather, perhaps he still is. Her eyes drifted to the Chaos shard, which was large enough to dominate the room. She felt a nearly uncontrol...

CoESC Book 10-10.3: Nexus Point

A big portion of Northern Lindorn was burnt to the ground. After that first night attack, several more followed. At least, that’s what Yuriko later learned. At the moment, she had travelled to the Karcellian capital and was feeling out that bump of direction that Damien’s awakening had highlighted. Oh, she wasn’t alone, despite what she originally intended.

“You’re giving a lot of weight to these strange instincts of yours, aren’t you?” Heron chuckled and Yuriko just shrug...