“Maru, how are you feeling?” Yuriko asked as she half carried her brother towards the wall. Gwendith did the same for Saki. Coming closer to the wall allowed her to take a closer look at the runescript lines, and while it did remind her of her own Body Forging Technique, the ones here were…simpler.

“Like something pulled me inside out,” Marron groaned. “And don’t call…me…Maru.”

“Sorry.” Yuriko stuck her tongue out for a brief moment, and her brother rolled his eyes at her childishness.

“I should be fine…in a bit,” he grumbled.

“We cannot tarry for long,” Faeril insisted, looking none the worse for wear. In fact…he didn’t look like he’d been affected at all. “Sha’ledras are built differently,” he offered.

“They should be good in ten minutes,” Lucian said.

“Why didn’t you warn us of this?” Yuriko asked.

“I…well, there are other routes and this one isn’t the only hiding place or path.” He shifted uneasily. “Anyway, the panel is on the opposite side of the Keep, so we’ll need to get out of these side buildings. The passages between are locked.”

“Maybe I can open them.” Yuriko mused.

“Less danger that way,” Faeril agreed.

“Or we can just…” Lucian shook his head. “No, forget I said anything. Going through the gardens and the courtyards will just leave us exposed. Although, that’s the fastest way.”

“Better slow and safe,” Marron began.

“Unless we get surrounded and trapped,” Lucian countered.

“Tsk, fine,” Yuriko growled. “Tell me where the panel is and I’ll go there myself.”

“What? No! Yuri, what are you thinking?”

“We’re close, and if what he said is true, then it’s better we get this done now,” Yuriko muttered. “Tell me where it is.”

“I’ll go with you,” Lucian offered. “I mean, we will go with you.” Indicating the other members of his team that were unaffected.

“I don’t trust you,” Yuriko said bluntly.

“Now, now,” Faeril said. “We…”

“No, fine. You can go by yourself,” Lucian growled. “It’s only our lives and freedom that’s at stake.”

“I won’t fail,” Yuriko said confidently. “And I’ll be faster alone.” And safer too, she added to herself.

“Yuri, no,” Marron said, grasping her arm. “Just wait, urk…” He fell back as his body shuddered. Murky sweat burst out of his face and he started hyperventilating. “What’s ten minutes?”

“Fine,” Yuriko sighed. She paced nervously to and fro, but kept her Anima perception around her brother and Saki.

Sure enough, a few more minutes passed and most of the others had recovered. Most. Saki and Marron still hadn’t recovered.

Well, they’re Knights, so there’s more that the Basic Body Forging has to go through. Damien said.

‘How long?’

A few hours.

“They haven’t recovered yet?” Lucian asked pointedly.

“Obviously not,” Yuriko snarled.

“So who’s holding us back now….” The mocking whisper was meant to be heard by the look on his face.

Yuriko just glared back.

“We can leave a contingent here,” Faeril suggested. “Half of us go ahead. Miss Davar,” He turned to her, “you’re the only one who can match one of the Athrodius in battle. You must go.”

“Well, this is what we came here to do,” Yuriko said. The Avos didn’t really specify what gate they wanted closed, but she assumed it was because of the Warforged. She recalled the Athrodius that they fought at the surface. The thing had slaughtered the Grunders so she didn’t think they were all that bad. Ah, that one retreated when she brought out Fri’Avgi, though the one they fought in the Foreign Quarter asked for a passcode. Hmmm, there was a larger than even chance that the Athrodius guarding the panel would be hostile too.

“Let’s go, girl,” Lucian said shortly. “We’re counting on you.”

Tired of his taunting, Yuriko ignored the man with a supreme force of Will and turned to Gwendith and Desire.

“I’m coming with you!” both of them said immediately.

Yuriko rolled her eyes. “No, please keep Maru and Saki safe.” She stared at Gwendith’s eyes until the other girl assented. Desire nodded after she saw Gwendith agree.

Faeril evenly divided the teams, three to stay and three to go. Afterwards, the seventeen of them left the Forging Room via the door on the opposite side. They followed the hallway until it led back out to the courtyard.

The distance between the outer buildings and the Keep was probably around two to three hundred paces, Yuriko thought. The flat space looked like a parade ground, actually, or an open area for a kill zone if the defenders had pulled back all the way to the Keep. There were hedges, bushes, and flowering trees towards the sides though. And right now, there were hundreds of Warforged Drones in neat and even lines, separated into squares. They were facing the Keep, thankfully, otherwise, they would have noticed her and the others as soon as they came out in the open. They looked to be separated into even squares too, six by six deep. The hoplites were at the front of the formation, the crushers next, and the pelters at the rear. There were at least ten such squares there.

“What are they doing?” Yuriko muttered.

No one answered her though, and the group continued into the next open passage. They did the same for the next three times they went out of the building, but in the fourth building, Lucian stopped at a door. He looked at it pensively for a moment, then glanced back at her. His eyes narrowed in subtle calculation, and he nodded to himself.

“Miss Davar,” he began politely, which honestly put up her hackles.

“What?”

“Do you think you can open this door?”

“Uh-huh. Why?”

“I believe this is an armoury.”

Yuriko frowned and looked at the door. Nothing really sets the door apart from the others. It was the same kind of metal sliding door as the others. Oh, there were a few words stamped near the top. They weren’t painted or otherwise easily visible, but they were there. Written in Old Imperial, of course. And it did say Armoury.

“You’re right,” she conceded, “but is this the best time to be looting?”

“We’re already here,” the man shrugged, “and you can have the first pick of whatever we find in there.” He gave her a winning smile. It was creepy.

Yuriko suppressed a shudder but considered the point. On one hand, this really wasn’t what they came down here for, but on the other hand, the last time she entered a pre-Shattering ruin she wound up with Fri’Avgi. While she wasn’t sure if she’d find artefacts in there, it was still a worthwhile, and practically risk-free endeavour. She absently rubbed her backpack. There should be enough room there for a few things.

“Alright,” she agreed and Lucian’s grin widened for a long moment before he fixed his expression to its usual dourness.

Yuriko walked up to the door and pressed her palm against the metal. The others crowded around her until a huff and an ungentle shove with her kinesis pushed them back. She followed it up with a glare and they shuffled back with clear reluctance.

Pushing her Anima into the door proved no more difficult than she expected, and with the same override pattern, the door slid open into a rectangular chamber.

She barely took a step inside when the big man squeezed his way inside, with a muttered “Thanks.”

The light panels on the ceiling revealed several racks of weapons, melee weapons mostly, and a few armour stands. The weapons looked somewhat primitive compared to what the Empire used, and the armour was mostly chainmail hauberks or chain shirts. There were also a few shelves on the far wall.

Yuriko walked towards the opposite wall while the others gathered around the armour and weapon racks. The shelves had boxes on them and when she came close, she saw that they had metal hoops inside. They were linked in sets of five, made of silver, and had an inset green stone on each hoop.

Take all of them. Damien said quickly.

‘What are these things?’ She asked while she grabbed the sets and plopped them inside her backpack.

Animus armour. You have to wear the set, then invest Animus in them. They’ll create a transparent suit of armour that will protect you as well as any breastplate and chainmail. Well, they use up the Animus but you can fill them up again afterwards.

‘Wow.’ Yuriko thought. Useful indeed. A quick surface inspection showed her strands of runescript lines along the interior of the hoops, and there was no doubt there were more to be seen within the material. There were a dozen sets in all, and they fit easily in her bag.

As she spun on her heels, she caught sight of a few sword stands along the corner. A beautiful blade was displayed on it, and an ornate scabbard, with silver fittings around the topmount and the endmount, the frog stud which would clip it on a belt was also made of silver. The sword was designed to be used one-handed and when she picked it up, she found its centre of balance was squarely on the hilt. It made it much easier to swivel and twist the blade, though it meant that hacking attacks on it would be a bit weaker. She liked how it felt in her hand though.

Nodding to herself, she took the scabbard and used her kinesis to undo her belt buckle, slid the leather through the frog stud and adjusted it so that it hung easily along her left side. Then she slid the arming sword into its sheath, noting the mouth was lined with some padding, to keep the blade from dulling. She hadn’t held an actual blade in a long while and this one immediately sat on her hip as though it belonged there.

Satisfied, she headed back towards the door and found that most of the weapons and armour had been taken by the others. Lucian tested the edge of a battleaxe he found and gave a satisfied smirk.

“Let’s move,” She said.

“Give us a few more minutes to pack this all up,” Lucian said quickly.

“Fine.”

Yuriko stomped out into the hallway and found Faeril leaning against the wall, whistling softly to himself.

“Aren’t you interested in the gear?”

The Sha’ledras boy shook his head. “Those are accursed things. Forged from hatred and suffering.”

She arched an eyebrow. “Why would you say that?”

“This is a tomb.” Faeril shook his head. “And if not for the fact that I want to be able to leave, I wouldn’t even want to step foot here. Those things are grave goods.”

“There aren’t any bodies here,” Yuriko sniffed.

“Think what you will and do what you must,” he said snootily.

“I will.”

Yuriko rolled her eyes and headed down the hallway so she could have some solitude. Once she was far enough away, she used her kineses to grab one of the sets and quietly slipped it on. A bracelet on either wrist, another set around her ankles, and the torque went around her neck. All of them fit snugly against her skin and was cool to the touch. The metal began to warm as she invested Animus in each one.

The metal resonated with her Anima and gave off little pulses of Animus that wrapped around her body. A full fifty lumens went into each set, and in almost no time, she invested two hundred fifty lumens into the Animus Armour. As she did so, she red the exposed runescript lines, which were a set of instructions rather than lines of effect.

There were two modes of use. One created a transparent armour around her body which would absorb or deflect force away. A powerful enough blow would go through the thing but it would still weaken it. This mode consumed a lumen per minute of activation, so fifty minutes total.

The second mode created an ablative barrier around her in a sphere, much like a Wyldling’s Protective Field. It would absorb and shed offensive Animus once it touches the barrier, but it would drain the armour’s reserve on a one-to-one basis. That is, an Empowered Strike with ten lumens would take out at least the same amount on contact. She could also set the barrier to block kinetic force, but she couldn’t understand how the formula for that worked.

Anyway, she thought the second mode was just a waste of Animus so she kept it at the first setting. The armour would come to life only if she turned it on though. She half expected it would do so automatically if she got attacked, but there was no such trigger conditions in the instructions. More importantly, when she used her Anima perception on the things, she found embedded runescript weaving within the metal. That meant she’d have something to look at and study to see if she could replicate it. A flutter of excitement made her heart skip a beat.

Huh. Why did she look forward to deconstructing the armour?

By the time the armour was charged, Lucian and his gang came out of the armoury carrying sacks filled with loot.

“Let’s get going!” he said brightly.

‘About time!’ Yuriko thought furiously.