A single lumen swam in Yuriko’s reserve and it was the only thing keeping her conscious. Despite her initial resolve, she couldn’t help it. She had to use Fri’Avgi as using her sunblade or Animus blades weren't enough to fight the shrunken Lignoculi.

Fighting that rotter, knocking him back and cutting his body in half, had been satisfying. Doing the same to the other two had been a matter of course, and when they finished them all off, she thought that it would be easy to get to the Ebon Horizon now. Only to have those same rotters return with brand new bodies.

It went as she had expected, unfortunately. While their movement wasn’t as stilted and stiff as before, they didn’t seem to be quite used to fighting hand to hand. Oh, they knew how to wield their prodigious strength but the skill of their movements was worse than even Braden and Orrin.

Still, she needed to have the third dance in ascendance to cut through the dense wooden body, and sometimes she needed to combine it with the fourth dance to take advantage of a momentary opening that would have closed too quickly for her to react to. The combination drained her Animus reserves even faster, but it was that or lose right then and there.

The last blow she gave cut one of them in half, and she only had a moment, a blink of an eye, to realize how badly she had miscalculated the depths of her reserves. She felt the last lumens of Animus drain away and her consciousness started to fade. Blacking out was the end, and there was nothing she could do!

Undo the binding!

Damien’s voice jolted her and instinctively, she realised what he meant. A single lumen of Animus was invested into a runescript pattern beneath her navel: one that Master Alfein taught her that would control her cycles. She unravelled the pattern and reclaimed the lumen, letting it swim in the empty confines of her Core. Where once there had been a ball of fire, now, there was only darkness.

Eh, the shape of her Core was surrounded by glimmers of Radiance, wasn’t it? She wasn’t sure, and she didn’t have the time to explore. Now, she had to fight. But what kind of resistance could she give?

Your Anima does not consume Animus. Use it. Empower Fri’Avgi with it and the Liberium should activate. All you need is to destroy everything and then we’ll have enough time to recover.

Heeding his words, Yuriko gathered her Anima, forcing every bit of light she could bend to her Will into a condensed ball above her palm. Fri’Avgi lay empty by her side. Oh, the red gem still drank in the ambient Chaos but she thought that it was slower than usual.

She glared at the human-sized Colossi. The female one looked down haughtily at her, and though the faceplate showed no emotion whatsoever, Yuriko felt smugness radiating from her eyes. She was just about to drive her Anima into Fri’Avgi when…

Wait!

‘Huh?’

Crack!

The sound echoed throughout the plane, and her eyes were drawn to the skies, where it came from. A magnificent Chaos ship blew past the Veil, and a moment later, a figure covered with silvery light emerged and flew towards them.

Yuriko didn’t have enough Animus to activate Enhanced Sight but she didn’t need it to see when the figure came closer.

“Mum?” she gasped.

Sadeen’s eyes were warm when they met Yuriko’s and she felt a mixture of hope, relief, and a little terror. She spoke a few words but Yuriko couldn’t hear it, and it didn’t look like any of her companions did either. They were all looking at Mum with sparkles in their eyes

Chaos, why were all of them gaping? Was that drool on Riley’s chin?

A wave of…something, spread out from Sadeen. It was something Yuriko felt more than saw. And suddenly, the Lignoculi all froze. Some, those who were in a precarious stance, fell over in a heap, while those who were standing remained so. The female Lignoculi right in front of her turned into a statue and the light behind its eyes disappeared.

Crunch! Boom! Bang!

In the distance, the privateer Chaos ships all crashed to the hard ground, crumpling into themselves. Fires blossomed, lightning arced, and smoke billowed from varied holes in the hull. And then, there was silence. The blood warriors all dissipated, too.

What in Chaos happened?

On Mum’s back were silvery ribbons that acted like wings, flapping slowly up and down. She drifted over to Yuriko, a happy smile across her lips. But a moment later, her gaze snapped towards the heaven-reaching wooden pillar and the smile melted off her face.

YOU DARE IMPINGE ON MY DOMAIN!

The words made Yuriko shudder. No, it made her quiver with terror. It felt as if her body was being shaken apart, that another word and she would be turned to dust. Her Anima quivered on her palm and she hurriedly released it back to its natural state. The comforting warmth of it soothed her nerves.

“Urk!”

Everyone around her was on their knees and spitting out blood. Riley and Aidan fared better than the Isgeri, with only a trickle of blood dripping down their nose. She reached up to her face and wiped the blood off her lip.

The Chaos ship above wobbled in the air, but it moved quickly towards them anyway.

The heaven-reaching pillar writhed and contracted, while the mountain beneath them shuddered. A large fragment, nearly half of its width really, tore out from the rest of it and crunched down into a rough, serpentine shape. The upper one-third of the thing shaped itself into an extremely muscular humanoid torso, with thick forelimbs that ended with blunted claws. The head was completely humanoid, but with broad cheekbones, heavy brows, and wide-set eyes. It was completely bald.

The entire thing was huge beyond belief. The root had been nearly a longstride away from the edge of the plateau, but the creature merely reached over and laid a claw on the edge, then pulled itself over.

Sadeen didn’t just do nothing while watching though. Yuriko didn’t know what her Mum did, but even as the creature formed out of the pillar, she gestured expansively with her hands while nearly a dozen silvery tendrils emerged from her back. Her Animus formed into runescript words, dozens of paces long, and even without Chaos sight active, she could see the ambient Chaos gathering around Mum.

The reddish ambient Chaos filled in the runescript words, somehow changing hues from crimson to silver. A couple of lines formed into a circle, while five others wrapped around Sadeen’s body. Something drifted out from Mum’s gossamer clothing, cubes and shards of the same silvery metal that the Chaos ship was made off.

As soon as the creature’s hand touched the earth, the runescript lines that formed circles spat out a thick bolt of purple lightning. It latched onto the creature’s claws, but even though its flesh started to smoke and burn, it hardly seemed to notice the attack. But then, the circle stopped emitting lightning, and the one already on the creature spread out from its hand and to the rest of its body.

Then, the other circle flashed and a lance of golden light flew from a hole in the air straight towards its face. And the first circle opened another rift and released a cloud of black messenger cranes.

The lance bounced off a curtain of light that formed a few paces from the surface of the creature’s skin. The black cranes flew around the extended arm and left cuts all across its length.

The creature didn’t seem to care for the wounds, but the lightning that bound it gave it some trouble. It tried to move its arm, but it only spasmed a bit.

YOU CANNOT BIND ME FOR LONG, HEATHEN!

“No. But it will hold you back long enough,” Sadeen said easily. The runescript spinning around her slowly changed her skin from its healthy rosy glow to jade green. “Yuri and the rest of you, get on the Silver Tiger.”

Yuriko found herself moving before she could even think. The Chaos ship, the Silver Tiger, dipped down from the heavens and a hatch opened from the bottom. The ship hovered just a pace above the stones, and all it would take to board would be to get there and leapt onto the ramp.

The moment she realised that she had moved without her own volition, something within Yuriko rebelled.

No, she wouldn’t be controlled!

Something resisted, but that something wasn’t as strong as Yuriko’s Will. She found herself staggering to a halt not a dozen paces from the ship.

The others didn’t have her recalcitrance. Aidan carried Tiernan under his arms, Riley followed soon after. Shara and Michi helped Reinhardt aboard too. Then, without even glancing back at her, they all went deeper into the ship. Yuriko couldn’t help but look back at the battle instead.

Sadeen had more gates open and each of them fired some kind of projectile that either continued to bind the creature or attempted to penetrate the shield. At the same time, the huge creature spat out shards, waves of force, and bolts of lighting back at Mum.

The metal shards simply bounced off Sadeen’s jade skin, while the ripples were blocked by barriers constructed by the runescript lines. The lightning seemed to hurt her though and Yuriko yelped in fear when she saw her Mum stagger and nearly fall.

She quickly recovered, however, and swore viciously as she spun more runescript lines out of her Animus.

Sorcery, Yuriko realized belatedly. But the way Mum did it was so different from how Rhain, the Tiathan Sorcerer cast his spells. For one thing, he was far slower, and he could only do one thing at a time, while Mum’s Animus spun a couple of spells or so at a time, while she dodged or blocked attacks.

Sadeen glanced back at the Silver Tiger, then caught sight of Yuriko who was still staring.

“What are you waiting for? Get in! I can’t keep this up for long!”

Yuriko started, then blushed as she realized her folly. “The Ebon Horizon…”

“Just get in!”

This time, Yuriko didn’t resist the command and jumped into the Silver Tiger’s ramp. She followed the path inside even as the ship lifted off. The ramp closed behind her. There was nobody else here but there were glowing arrows on the floor that moved, prompting her to follow it. She did so while looking at her surroundings.

The halls were made out of the same silvery metal as the ship’s exterior. It was smooth to her touch and cold. Unlike the Ebon Horizon though, it wasn’t covered with runescript lines. Her diminished senses couldn’t check if they were etched beneath the metal but she suspected it was.

The path was relatively short, and she reached the end of it in only a dozen paces or so. The relative darkness and her depleted Animus didn’t let her see until she almost ran into it. The door slid open with an audible whoosh, and as soon as she stepped inside, she froze.

“Yuriko!” Master Kiyo Alfein gushed as she ran up to her and caught her in a rather fierce hug. “We’ve finally found you! Oh, thank the Ancestors, the Progenitor Matriarch, and the Prima!”

“Uh, Ma…Master Alfein,” Yuriko spluttered. The Sharom instructor and her elite class teacher was honestly the last person she expected to see inside the Chaos ship.

The room they were in was a perfect square, about five paces to a side. The ceiling was three and half high, about standard with the Imperial building code. The floor was the same silvery metal as the hallway, but a patterned rug covered most of it. Light blue curtains covered the walls to the left and right, while there was another door in front. In the middle of the room was a bed, and there were some strange constructs around it.

“No need for that now, I’m unworthy of the title,” Master Alfein sniffed. “And since I’m your aunt, you can just call me Kiyo, or Aunty if you’re feeling vengeful. I’m not that much older than you anyway.”

“Ah, I see,” Yuriko muttered before what Master Alfein said caught up to her churning mind. “Eh, what?”

“I’m your aunt,” Kiyo sniffed.

The cat-eyed woman was shorter than Yuriko now by a couple of inches but she was much more buxom.

“Uh.”

“Anyway!” Kiyo pushed herself away then gave Yuriko a head to toe look. “Why are you wearing those tacky clothes? Hmmm, and you need to get cleaned.”

Kiyo tugged Yuriko’s arm towards the bed but stopped when she didn’t move.

“You’re my aunt?” Yuriko repeated dumbly. Kiyo didn’t look like she shared any physical features as she did, on either side of the family. Well, she was quite beautiful too, but it was a different sort of beauty from Mum.

“Yes, yes. Kiyo Mishala Alfein. I take more after my father but I inherited a little bit of the Mishala Mien, too, which is why I’m still part of that clan. Now take those off, I need to get the instruments to check on you. Ancestors know what happened to you in the Chaos Sea, and what kind of damage it did to you.” She devolved into mutters.

Yuriko blinked in confusion. Her Animus reserves had started to recover after its near depletion. Merely breathing in the ambient Chaos rich air did that. Inside the Chaos ship, the strangeness of the plane was gone, and it was much more comfortable for her.

She shook her head to clear it and shoved confusion and revelations aside. “No.”

“No?” Master Alfein, Kiyo, blinked up at Yuriko. “No?” She seemed to taste the word on her lips and found it rather strange. She eyed Yuriko oddly, then asked, “whyever not?”

“What’s happening outside?” Yuriko asked instead, “Did the ship pick up the crew of the Ebon Horizon? Where are the others who came with me? And what’s happening with Mum?”

Kiyo looked at her for a long moment, then sighed.

“Of course, you have it too. Why am I surprised?” She trod over to one of the walls and drew back a curtain, revealing a crystal screen embedded in it. She pressed her palms against the edges and channelled a bit of Animus into it. Words appeared on the screen, but the angle made it nearly impossible for Yuriko to make them out clearly.

“We’re picking up the Ebon Horizon’s crew even as we speak, and cousin Sadeen’s still fighting the Great Old One’s manifestation. We’ll leave the plane in a couple of minutes, and she’ll be on board soon.” Kiyo removed her fingers from the screen and turned to look at Yuriko. “Does that satisfy you or would you like to see them with your own eyes?”

“Yes. I would,” Yuriko sighed.

“So untrusting now, aren’t we? What happened to our naive little baby?” Kiyo sniggered. “Well, I don’t blame you and I could only imagine what you went through. But before you can be let into the rest of the ship, we have to examine if you’re contaminated or not. Now strip and lie down on the examination bed.”

Kiyo grinned and there was a sudden wicked light behind her eyes.

Yuriko gulped and reflexively backed up until her back hit the cold metal of the door.