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 and down the extant road and killed any swarmling or Wanderer that came too close. The difficulty lay in the fact that they were still in the midst of a pine forest and they couldn’t see too far away. As such, the militia was arranged in more traditional teams rather than the previously emphasised ranged striker focus.

Fortunately, the forest petered out into rocky hills after the second league point, though that presented a different challenge all on its own.

“Once we reach the hills, the stable stone slabs won’t be as necessary,” Marron said even as he scanned the surroundings. “We should make better time then. Otherwise, it would take nearly a Season to get back to Rumiga City.”

“But we’re headed to the Zarek Mountains, aren’t we? You really think we can’t just go directly south?”

“You and I would survive easily, but what about the rest?” Marron said evenly. “It’s safer to cross the Zarek through a pass, even if we’d have to negotiate…”

“With whom?”

“Avos Zarek, or one of its representatives,” Marron answered. “Well, instead of negotiating, more like bribing, really.”

“Chaos Shards?”

“Among other things, but that’s the easiest we have access to. Maybe a MiJin’s worth.”

“That’s a lot.”

Yuriko’s mind whirled. Wasn’t that about a thousand times a measure of shard? A million Sovereigns? No wait, a MiJin is a thousand Jins. A measure of Shard is a HiJin. A hundred HiJin makes a Jin, so, uh, a hundred million?

“Do we even have that much?”

“The commander didn't say,” Marron chuckled. “But with the Wyldling Wave, it’s only a matter of time anyway.”

“Uhm, what about the shard tax?” Selling a measure of Shard to the Empire only gave 300 Sovereigns instead of a thousand after all.

Marron rolled his eyes. “Fort Commander Perry is the Empress’ representative in this case. She would have jurisdiction on how to allocate the resources. Besides,” Marron winked, “it's not as if we have the leeway to engage in bureaucratic nonsense. Life is at stake here.”

“Right,” Yuriko muttered.

She frowned when she saw a Wanderer, an Antid, lumbering in the distance. She pointed a finger and released a beam of focused Radiant energy. It lanced right through the Antid’s head and melted a hole in between its eyes.

“You’re a light weaver now?” Marron teased.

“Just using up some Radiant energy,” Yuriko said. She hurried towards the Antid’s corpse and spotted a Lurker a dozen paces away. Its acidic spit splashed uselessly against her condensed Anima and she blasted the thing with another concentrated beam of Radiant energy. “Each one takes up a tenth of my reserves.”

“You’re fine wasting them?”

“It fills up quickly. Especially in the sun.” It would only take a few minutes to fill up what she spent, though she should keep at least a third in reserve for when she needed to conjure a sunblade.

She materialised an Animus knife to pry the Shards out of the Wanderers though. “About five measures, I think,” she muttered.

“Good job,” Marron said dryly. He levelled his Plasma Caster, aimed towards one of the bushes and blasted past it to nail a Hunter trying to sneak up on them. “Tsk. The woods are crawling with them.”

“Well, the Wave had been ongoing for several weeks now,” Yuriko said.

“Huh, it’s not a Wave though,” Marron reminded her. “They’re coming from the Chaos Fortress, not a Tideland.”

Yuriko frowned. “What’s the difference?”

“There’s no easy target to eliminate to drive them off, for one,” Marron said ruefully. “And since they’re entering through a Chaos Spring, they aren’t as restricted in terms of time and power.”

“Eh?” This hadn’t been part of what the Academy taught her.

Marron arched an eyebrow. “Hmmm, you really should consider finishing your studies. You’ve been missing for a couple of years and here you are, missing your next term.”

“Uh, you’ll tell me anyway, right?” Yuriko pleaded.

“Of course, can’t have an ignorant little sis. Puts us brothers in a bad light. Heh.”

Yuriko squinted threateningly. “Is that right?”

“Ooh, I’m scared!”

“You better be!” Her hand darted forward and caught his waist while he tried, futilely, to dodge. A pinch and a twist were all it took.

“Alright! Stop! Ack!”

“Hmph!”

Marron rubbed his side and mockingly glared at her before he sighed. “You’ve completed your transformation to musclehead. At least some of the air’s left your brain, hehehe.”

“Want another pinch?”

“No! Mercy!”

“Hmph! Start talking!”

“Yes, my princess.”

Yuriko shook her head and sighed, “Don’t joke about that, please.”

“Right. Sorry,” Marron said, all levity had drained out. “Ahem, anyway. With a Chaos Spring, it’s like a Chaos Channel, except the path between the outside and inside isn’t as drawn out. All the Chaos dwellers need to do is take a step through the rift, and they’d be here. Ah, they still have to protect themselves with their Field though, so they’re still weakened. Ah, but the ambient Chaos level is rising.”

“What can we do, then?”

“Us? Nothing direct. We need to get to Rumiga City and let the Legate and the nobles know about it. They’ll use the Gemheart to close the Chaos Spring.”

“Where was it again?” Yuriko asked.

“A hundred leagues from Aegermonth. Near the Cinderfield Hills.”

“Huh, that’s where…” Yuriko froze.

Right, that’s where you tore open a rift to the Chaos Sea. Damien said ruefully.

“This is my fault,” Yuriko whispered.

“Huh, what was that?” Marron asked.

“Nothing.” Yuriko sighed, feeling a tinge of shame. Well, there still wasn’t anything they could do right now.

You can use Fri’Avgi to close the rift, of course. Damien said helpfully, But that fortress is probably filled with higher-tier Chaos Lords. Too much even for our prowess. At the moment anyway. Heh.

“How…will the Spring expand?” Yuriko asked, both Marron and Damien.

“I don’t know. It doesn’t look like it though?”

Of course, it will. The motion of the Chaos flows and the fact that the plane is tethered means that it will continue to abrade the planar fabric. It would take years, even decades to become worse though.

‘What will happen?’

She felt Damien shrug. The plane will sink.

‘Sink?!’

Deeper into the Chaos Sea, where the ambient Chaos grows denser and denser. Eventually, the plane will drop all the way to the Abyss. Ah, everything inside would have perished before that happened though.

‘Damien, we have to close it!’

Weren’t you listening to your big bro? The Gemheart can do it, and even if it can’t, you’ll have grown strong enough long before it reaches that point. Don’t worry too much about it.

“Yuri? Something wrong?” Marron poked her side, and she squealed in surprise. “Ah, yeah. You’re ticklish there. Heh.”

“Urg! I’m fine, thanks.” Yuriko muttered.

They reached the end of the road soon afterwards. Ten Earthmelders worked at the same time and they laid down several paces of stone slabs every minute. There were also two Centuries of legionnaires on guard, one of which was Areena Henry’s Solace Shade Century. The lightning caster wasn’t in perfect health, but she was out of immediate danger of death, at least.

“Areena!” Yuriko waved at the grey-haired, buxom woman.

“Oh, Yuriko and Marron.” Areena grinned. “Thanks for the support.”

For someone who had been impaled through the guts, the woman looked remarkably hale. Her Agminis uniform was prim and proper, though there was a bulge around her middle, where specialised bandages aided in regrowing her skin and muscles. If she had been an Armsmaster, the injury would have reduced her combat potential to a great extent, but since she fought using her elemental Animus techniques, it only slowed her down a little bit. As long as the rest of her Century kept the enemy off her, she was in no danger.

“We’re headed towards the second campsite,” Marron offered.

“Oh, sure. Just follow the markings. The Builders are almost done with the forest, and it shouldn’t take too long to set up the camp.”

“Is Builder Knight Josef there?” Marron asked.

“Yes. He’s flattening the ground and raising the berm. Should be done before evening.”

“Right.” Marron nodded. “We’ll head over there then.”

“See you two later! Oh, Marron.” Areena put on a thoughtful expression. “Are you sure the two of you are related? Yuriko’s so beautiful, and, well…” She gave him a head-to-toe glance. “Look at you.”

Yuriko burst out laughing while Marron growled, “If you weren’t injured!”

“Hie hie hie! Just kidding Maru-maru!”

Her elder brother stiffened as he walked away, then grumbled sourly under his breath. “Niamh!”

As the two of them left the road’s end, Yuriko stared at Marron while he fumed. But it was strange since he didn’t look or sound as angry as he normally would have been.

“Are you…marrying Niamh?” Yuriko asked.

Marron tripped over his feet and landed face-first into the snow. He pushed away from it, spluttering. “Wha…when did you? I mean, why would you even think that?”

Yuriko rolled her eyes at him. “She told me, of course. Said that I’m her little sis now. You’re not playing with her feelings are you?”

“Huh.” He got up and patted the snow away from his pants and overcoat. The falling snow coated his hair and his shoulders, too, though Yuriko’s Anima had kept the wet stuff from touching her.

“Well?”

“Why are you asking?”

“I always wanted a big sis,” Yuriko said in a small voice.

“And you think Niamh’s a good role model for you?” He shook his head and rolled his eyes.

“...meanie.”

“Anyway, that was inappropriate.”

“Sorrieee!”

The forest ended half a longstride away, though the hills weren’t exactly barren. Small groves dotted the place, and there were evergreen shrubs and dwarf trees too. Still, the valleys were mostly bare of vegetation, though the rocky terrain wasn’t very suitable for the transports either.

The landcrafters’ wheels would sink and get stuck if the ground was too soft, and if it was too rocky, the ride would be bumpy and uncomfortable.

The markers that Areena mentioned were steel sticks that were a couple of paces long and about three inches around. A pair had been stuck to the ground, five paces apart, and the tips had a crystal that glowed a dim orange, much like a flame. Each pair was about a hundred paces from the next one. They were just tall enough that the recent snowfall hadn’t buried them over, though she expected that if the blizzard continued, the snowdrifts would grow taller than a man.

The skies were still dark grey, though the Radiant Sun’s rays poked through enough that her reserves were already filled up. The thunder and lightning had stopped an hour back.

The path followed the curves of the land, avoiding the slopes, overhangs, and trees. That meant that they weren’t as far from the Frozen Camp as they could have been, but ignoring the terrain would only prolong the road-making process.

They took their time following the path. Yuriko could have run all the way and made it to the next camp in a matter of minutes, but they were out here to cull the Wyldlings after all. By the time they arrived, they’d collected near a Jin of Chaos Shards already.

“I guess it wouldn’t take that long to collect a MiJin,” Yuriko muttered.

The campsite was ready. The Earthmelder Knight had already flattened a square plot a hundred paces to a side and raised an earthen berm to two paces high. He even made small towers at the corners to mount the Plasma Carronades. He also had a couple of Centuries of troops with him. A mixed unit though, since the man was a capable combatant by himself.

The camp was nestled between a couple of low hills, so Yuriko and Marron climbed up on either side. She didn’t see any Wyldlings, though she did spot a few militia teams scouting. After an hour’s observation, the two of them met up at the campsite.

“Ready to push closer to the Zarek Mountains?” Marron asked. “We’re charting a path southwest.”

Beyond these hills were the Zarek Mountain’s foothills, which would have been mountains in their own right if they weren’t next to the Zarek. Those hills were covered in a thick forest, and there was no sign of snow anywhere. The mountain range was a monolith that thrust up towards the sky. Yuriko saw a break in the mountain wall farther south, though she wasn’t sure how to gauge how far away it truly was.

Before Yuriko could say anything, she saw a militiaman running toward them. His face was pale and covered with sweat, and his pupils were dilated with fear.

“Barbarians and Chaos Lords!” He blurted out as soon as he came close. “Headed towards the camp! Knights Davar, please return!”