Lester Yong & Rosa Fontelera-Yong

CoESC Book 7-13.3: Delving

Yuriko frowned as Lucian and his posse postured near the entrance gate.

“What are they doing here?” She asked Faeril.

The Sha’ledras boy nodded to her and said, “Lucian and his crew were the ones to trip the alarm and cause the increased Warforged aggression.” He held up his hands as Yuriko started to retort. “It was an accident. And they are the ones who know where that panel was.”

Yuriko shifted her stare to Lucian, who scowled at her and crossed his arms. He...

CoESC Book 7-13.2: Delving

Yuriko carefully lowered herself into the hot water. The temperature perceived by her Anima still had a bit of a disconnect with the rest of her body. While there was Radiant energy hidden away in every bit of her, in her Anima, the Radiant danced freely. That sort of warped her perception of heat, as evidenced by how everyone else avoided the part of the pool she was dipping in.

Still, the heat was wonderful! It suffused deep into her muscles and relaxed the tightly wound fibres. As so...

CoESC Book 7-13.1: Delving

The tour throughout Sorren’s Hollow was rather quick. First Faeril brought them to a cabin. It was a four-bedroom dwelling that was about twenty paces set back from the entrance road, and quite close to the inn. The next cabin was about the same distance away and didn’t look to be occupied.

“Four rooms?” Marron muttered then stared pointedly at Faeril. “Who are you expecting to share beds?”

“You and your sister?” Faeril laughed. “There’s another cabin free but ...

CoESC Book 7-12.3: Sorren's Hollow

“What’s going on here?” the old yet extremely fit man repeated, his fiery eyes sweeping across the combatants. He squinted at Yuriko for a long moment, confusion quite evident on his face. The vines trapping her squeezed harder triggering her irritation.

Yuriko gathered her Anima close to her skin, condensed it, and pushed everything but her clothes away. She solidified it against the vines and in a moment, the ropy tendrils loosened. Almost immediately, they fought back and tight...

CoESC Book 7-12.2: Sorren's Hollow

“Where are the doorknobs?” Saki suddenly asked, prompting Yuriko to take a quick look at the building doors and entrances.

The one right next to the district entrance was a three-storey affair, with rows of rectangular windows along every floor and a front lawn. A curved path led from the street towards the double doors, but Saki was right. She couldn’t see door knobs or handles, or anything else, for that matter. The doors were simply flat, and no indicators on how to unlock, or ...

CoESC Book 7-12.1: Sorren's Hollow

It’s been more than a decade, Edmund Sevier thought, since he’d let his hormones and gonads do the thinking instead of his head. He certainly wouldn’t have hesitated in helping the beleaguered Verdanians, but he wouldn’t have expended a rare relic, the Debilitating Orb, to do so. That had been the surest way to help, but it also meant he lost a precious single-use weapon in the process.

The orb was one of the many relics found in Synkrasia, though most of the others were of a…...

CoESC Book 7-11.3: An Abandoned City

“Hurry, around the corner!”

The strange man pulled Yuriko along as he spoke. Her light illuminated the room they were in, which she had assumed to be a cellar, but no, she was mistaken. The stairs had doubled back twice, and once they were at the bottom, a short passage led to an intersection.

The man’s grip was rather firm, but it was easy enough to break away. He glanced back at her and nodded towards the tunnels.

“Don’t fight them now. They’re following, but t...

CoESC Book 7-11.2: An Abandoned City

The eyes turned yellow as they focused on her, blinking rapidly in a strange pattern, then paused for a few moments. Yuriko stared at it with a bit of confusion and not a little bit of wariness.

The metal man she fought before had been as tough as Firehead or Weaver, and though a part of her wanted to launch immediately into an assault, there were still the hundreds of skitterers behind.

Marron and the others moved towards a smaller street, an alley compared to the broad avenue th...

CoESC Book 7-11.1: An Abandoned City

“What’s that?” Yuriko muttered as she saw something move in the distance. She had to look hard at it to make sure she could believe her sight, and that took a few moments of focus. No, she wasn’t mistaken. It was another metallic being, though one that was barely shaped like a human. It had four arachnid, or insectile she supposed, legs, and a squashed, boxy head. But there was no mistaking the weapons on its upper limbs. Plasma Casters, or something similar.

It was skittering c...

CoESC Book 7-10.3: Mysterious Depths

Edmund Sevier scrubbed at his scraggly beard as the day cycle in Sorren’s Hollow began. He made his way out of his bedroom, wandered into the sink and splashed water on his face to get all of the gunk out of his eyes. He wasn’t really a morning person having spent the last night writing and reading through his books.

The Hollow was a small village, outpost, or settlement, depending on who spoke, set in an odd corner of Synkrasia’s outer regions, and Edmund had spent the last decad...

CoESC Book 7-10.2: Mysterious Depths

It was clad in steel armour, or some other metal really, though the breastplate had been cleft in twain. Pale white bone, broken ribs mainly, and a bit of vertebrae were clearly visible. If she had seen this a couple of years ago, Yuriko would have thrown up. But after everything that happened, well, this was pretty much a matter of course.

Still, metal armour had not been worn in centuries, at least not by Imperial forces, so this one was either ancient or from a different, less develo...

CoESC Book 7-10.1: Mysterious Depths

“Are we really going?” Niamh asked Marron, her face a mask of worry and trepidation. Yuriko frowned but didn’t say anything. The Avos Zarek had given them a few minutes to think about his demands, and it was either cough up four more MiJins of Chaos Shards or do his bidding and pay the single MiJin that the caravan had prepared for.

The Chaos Lords and Wyldlings had mostly left them alone when they left the vicinity of the Frozen Camp. Of the barbarians, she had expected them to c...

CoESC Book 7-9.3: The Avos Court

Avos Shillogu thoughtfully kept his mouth shut as he ate the proffered purple-spotted cave mushroom that the other Avi had turned their nose up on. He was the only one who was omnivorous amongst the court and that was his greatest advantage.

Avos Sadama was a river serpent and fully carnivorous, as was Avos Kliss, a black-tipped white crane. The great Avos Zarek ate rocks and minerals, with the occasional plant matter that had contaminated his feeding pool.

So yes, he did enjoy th...

CoESC Book 7-9.2: The Avos Court

“Why did it leave?” Yuriko muttered, still somewhat stunned that the metal man had just up and left mid-battle. A seed of disappointment and wistfulness grew in her heart.

The creature had been able to weather her brother’s Knight level Facet with barely a scratch. Her condensed Anima would have broken at the second blow, had she been foolish enough to stand around like a target.

With all things being equal, a single lumen of Animus held in defence could cancel out one used ...

CoESC Book 7-9.1: The Avos Court

Yuriko climbed up a tall oak tree and walked towards a branch that gave her a better view. Enhanced Sight magnified her vision enough that she could see the source of the bronze-coloured light.

The Grunder-infected beasts ran towards the source, sacrificing their little lives like swarmlings against a fortress wall, trying to overcome their foe but ultimately reaped like ripened wheat at harvest time.

The source was a humanoid thing covered in uniform strips of metal, laterally fo...

CoESC Book 7-8.3: Hostile Mountain

“Easy now,” Marron murmured as he sighted down his Plasma Caster. The bear Grunder mauled a tree nearly a hundred paces away, trying to get at the hollow inside. There were probably bees and honey there but Yuriko couldn’t see them.

It was getting close to twilight and the five of them had travelled just a couple of leagues into the forest. They needed to pick up the pace and should try to make five or more leagues a day, at least while they were in the flatter part of the forest....

CoESC Book 7-8.2: Hostile Mountain

“Maru!” Yuriko called out to her brother, who gave her a mean stare. He didn’t let up until she grinned and mouthed, “Sorry.”

“Oh, lighten up, Maru-maru,” Niamh giggled.

“Hmph!” Marron snorted. He gestured to a seat at the makeshift table and nudged a bowl of ration bar stew at her once Yuriko sat down.

The stew wasn’t as bland as she expected and hurriedly gobbled up the contents.

“Slow down,” Marron laughed. “There’s more where that came f...

CoESC Book 7-8.1: Hostile Mountain

The sun had nearly set by the time Yuriko made it back to the campsite. The command transport hub was filled with reporting scouts, most of which didn’t bother writing things down and gave a verbal accounting of their duties. For her part, she mostly did as the others did, and sought out a free desk.

A harried-looking Decanus sat behind his desk and put up a privacy screen before gesturing for her to proceed.

“Grunders in the forest. They’re closer than the initial report,�...

CoESC Book 7-7.3: Seeking Sanctuary

There was a small building next to the command transport, barely a single floor and was mostly a single large room. Normally, the camp didn’t stay in one place long enough to warrant spending the Earthmelders’ time and Animus to create extra buildings, but Decanus Dumont had complained loudly and bitterly that the cold and snow was quite distracting for her work.

Yuriko walked into controlled pandemonium. Unlike the first camp, the logistics center now had half a dozen desks manned ...

CoESC Book 7-7.2: Seeking Sanctuary

“Are you ready?”

Gwendith gulped, feeling a touch of nerves. It's been a long two weeks of waiting and training. Yuriko had also taught her an Anima Recovery technique that she was to use during the Chaos baptism.

The two of them were in their tent after the taller girl chased everyone else away. Now, both sat on their heels and Yuriko had positioned herself behind Gwendith. She was in her underwear, and the cold air felt nice against her skin.

“Not really,” she mutt...

CoESC Book 7-7.1: Seeking Sanctuary

The barbarians and Chaos Lords had stopped chasing after them by the time the caravan had reached the third campsite. It had taken nearly a couple of weeks to get there, rather than one, by Yuriko’s reckoning. It was already the 16th Day of Air, and she’d missed the resumption of her classes. Not that she expected anything else, really, but she was suddenly struck with melancholy when she realised that her formal education was effectively over by now.

Well, technically she was alrea...

CoESC Book 7-6.3: Clashing Pride

Yuriko ran towards the fight but the sounds and lights faded away even before she got halfway there. A purple light flared for a moment and she heaved a sigh of relief. Her brother was still there.

She didn’t slow down and she arrived there within a couple of minutes. The path up rock formation was littered with burned bodies. Barbarians, mostly, but she saw a few Wyldlings, too. Marron waved at her from behind the formation then motioned towards his right. When she got up there, she ...

CoESC Book 7-6.2: Clashing Pride

By the time the Radiant Sun had set beyond the Zarek Mountains, Yuriko, Marron, and Sheamus had moved their fallback point several times to the north. The number of barbarians she’d killed had reached around a hundred, though she supported several imperial squads in their own ambushes.

Not all had gone well, however. At one point, the ambushing party had been surprised by another barbarian raider group and got pincered. She arrived just in time to see the militia team slaughtered. The...

CoESC Book 7-6.1: Clashing Pride

They pulled a bit further back from the forest’s edge. There was a good five hundred paces of clearing in between there and the outpost anyway, from the west side. Yuriko’s and Marron’s effective ranges were at half a longstride and any attempt to snipe at the figures on the wall would have exposed them.

Anyway, it looked like their prey would enter the forest which made what they needed to do much easier.

“Let’s move farther north,” Marron decided. “We’ll draw the...

CoESC Book 7-5.3: Pathfinding and Base Building

The terrain blended together as Yuriko and Marron ran back towards the first camp. It only took a few minutes with both of them going as fast as they could. Or rather, with Marron going as fast as he could. Yuriko wasn’t even winded at the pace.

They had left the messenger behind and Yuriko expected that by the time they arrived, the camp would already be in the midst of battle. She worried about Gwendith’s safety, though Saki and Desire were at the camp, so she should be safe.

CoESC Book 7-5.2: Pathfinding and Base Building

The snowstorm had reached Yuriko and Marron by midmorning. The two of them walked along the newly laid road, half a league from the first campsite. Ten Earthmelders of the Builder Corps, out of twenty-five, worked on the road at any given point in time, pushing out a longstride of pavement every two hours or so. They’d built roughly two leagues' worth since yesterday, and it would take until tomorrow to reach the projected second camp.

In the meantime, patrols of militiamen walked up ...

CoESC Book 7-5.1: Pathfinding and Base Building

By the time the sun rose at dawn, the caravan was less than a league from the camp. They were nearly four longstrides into the pine forest though, and they were on a narrow strip of road roughly six hundred paces long.

Yuriko and Marron’s heavy hauler was at the rear, just ahead of the Colossi Carrier. The Chainbreaker Century was deployed at the wings of the five-pace wide road, each man and woman kept a steady eye to the sides, and every now and then, a squad would break off from th...

CoESC Book 7-4.3: Exodus

Yuriko’s Anima had expanded by nearly ten inches. She didn’t even notice until a while ago when they prepared themselves to defend the camp. The caravan of fifty troop transports along with six of the eight carriers and haulers were lined up towards the southern gate. The carriers were roughly twice the length of a troop transport and were slightly wider. One of the Colossi Carriers and the last cargo hauler was pulled up next to the keep. The second Colossus squad, the one that had broug...

CoESC Book 7-4.2: Exodus

Gwendith sat on the chair, her legs in a duchess slant even though she wasn’t wearing a skirt. It was a habit formed over a lifetime, particularly enforced by her mother. She was of the nobility, and her grandfather held the title of Earl, even if she was unlikely to win such a title herself in the near future.

The nobility titles of the Empire were largely determined by merit rather than anything else. However, while it was true that titles weren’t hereditary, children of nobles we...

CoESC Book 7-4.1: Exodus

The Songstress of Heartfelt Desire hummed happily as she snuggled up next to her master. Yuriko had finally allowed it, after that other girl, Gwendith Sharine, weaselled her way to the master’s bed. Sure, she was sore and tired from an entire day of training, torture, really, if Desire didn’t know any better.

Gwendith desired power, however, and that was something Desire could respect. In her short life as a Chaos Lord, personal power was the only thing that was valued. At least in...