A couple of days later, Yuriko and the others encountered their first anathema beast. From that first cavern, they had to travel back a couple more, since all of the branch tunnels had also collapsed under whatever it was that blocked off Synkrasia. They made a base camp on that cavern, which wasn’t as large as the one nearest the city but was respectably big anyway. It even had a little stream bisecting it, flowing from a crack in the wall and towards another crack. The outflow was in the midst of a pond, which had formed simply because the water couldn’t exit fast enough. The cavern wasn’t flooded though, since there were more cracks for the water to flow into once it reached a certain spread.

Base camp cavern had three other branching tunnels, all but one beginning above the floor. That tunnel they explored, only to find themselves in a dead-end cavern. Well, not exactly, but the tunnels that led from it were so small that Yuriko would have to crawl like a worm to fit, not to mention the horses. Instead, out of the tunnels, came the beasts. And they came in a form that was immensely familiar. One she’d encountered in a distant plane, after finding herself swept away by a Chaos storm.

A humanoid ant. Femorant, if she remembered what it was called correctly. The creatures had been the nest the Sky Beast wanted her to clear back in Kogasi, though there was also a parasite or something equally sinister burrowed in the ant queen’s head, which changed a few things. Also, the specimen back there was markedly different from the ones that shimmied out of the small and narrow tunnels. For one thing, these Femorants were bright red. They were smaller but more compact. Denser and tougher. But, just like the antmen from back then, these ones attacked as soon as they caught sight of her and the others.

Dozens crawled out and were upon them in the blink of an eye. She barely had time to shout a warning, though the sight of her sunshards materialising around her was enough to alert the others. She took a step forward, making her the point of the wedge and the tide of Femorants broke against her blades.

They were tougher indeed. Their carapace resisted her Radiant energy sun shards for a second before penetrating through. Their insides were mushier though, and once past their carapace, they were as good as dead. She could easily take control of the battlefield, but she took the chance to let her people hone themselves against an enemy.

Through her perception aura, she kept an eye on the frontline. Heron’s was arguably the simplest of them all. He simply used his spear and poked a hole in the Femorant’s carapace, then stirred it up inside before pulling out. He also used his materialised hardened air shield to control the battlefield in front of him by bashing sideways, upwards, downwards, or whatever he needed to knock the ants off balance. The humanoid creatures walked on four legs and used their front pair as manipulator hands, but their primary mode of attack was to spit some kind of combustible liquid from their mandibles. It came out in gobs, and Heron’s Facet shield was ideal to prevent it from touching him.

The others weren’t as fortunate in countering the ant aggression. Asami had her Wind Whisper going and was coordinating the others as best as she could. Gwendith stood behind Heron to his right, using her flying ice daggers to strike at eyes or antennae. Sheamus was simply blasting away with Animus bolts. Without a Plasma Caster, he had adapted his Spirit Binding so that the rings he wore on each finger were able to condense bolts of Animus. They weren’t superheated plasma, but they packed quite a punch. His bolts struck in succession, with the first one cracking the carapace, and the second penetrating.

Desire hung back, as usual, singing her hymn and strength. It gave the ex-guards wielding polearms extra heft to counter the relatively crowded fighting space. In fact, the awkwardness of the cavern was the greatest detriment to their combat line and they were forced into staggered lines. Still, the methodical rise and fall of the halberds and poleaxes had a pleasant rhythm to it.

Each halberdier had a small buckler on their arms that they used to block the fiery spittle. It wasn’t always effective though, and several already had burns on their bodies. The wounded were hastily pulled back while fresher troops took over. The guards went first, then the civilians cycled through. The unawakened showed the greatest improvement, in Yuriko’s opinion, and they faced their assailants with equanimity.

Only a few Femorants got to the unawakened at a time, just barely enough to challenge them without undue risk. They performed admiringly, managing to fend off a Femorant while in groups of five, and the only injury was when a spearhead unexpectedly caught on a joint and snapped when the antman twisted. The poor fellow got his arm and torso mauled, though not fatally. Desire’s healing hymn should fix his wounds later. Another squad that already took care of their Femorant assisted the group, though the remaining four members didn’t panic and smoothly killed the anathema beast.

While all of that happened, Yuriko was simply practising the Endless Waltz. Not to its full form as that was unnecessary and wasteful. Even so, she could feel as if the battlefield was a Shatran board and every movement of both sides was clear. It was a powerful and heady feeling. Intoxicating.

However, she didn’t let it get out of hand. Whenever one of the Femorants came close to maiming or killing, a sunshard ended its life without mercy. They pulled back until they reached a natural bottleneck and simply slaughtered the attacking ants. The battle lasted for nearly an hour, and by the time the flood of enemies had trickled to a halt, the corpses were piled five deep. Their purplish blood stank and clung to the stones, and to the bottom of her shoes.

“Should we process the bodies?” Heron asked, though from his expression, he found the idea abhorrent and was only asking to be sure.

Yuriko shook her head. Despite the near mindlessness of the Femorants, they still had a human shape and were clearly sentient. So, no, they wouldn’t be processing the bodies in the ration bar fabricator. When she said as much, Heron sighed in relief.

“Do you think their tunnels have a path for us? And,” he swallowed, “do you think they’ve overrun Synkrasia?”

Yuriko shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. The Warforged stationed there are more than enough to repel these creatures.”

“...and you hope to gain control of them for the Empire?”

Yuriko smiled. “They acknowledge me already…but they’re not the only objective there. The portal.”

“I can’t say I’m not frightened of going through such a thing,” Heron muttered. “Who knows where we’ll end up.”

Yuriko started to say something but before she could get anything out, Heron snapped. “No, we’re not staying behind while you go there alone.”

She looked away and felt a bit of heat on her cheeks. “I wasn’t going to suggest such a thing.”

“You know you can’t lie to save your life, right?” Heron snickered.

“Shut it.”

Yuriko stomped away and headed to the tunnels along the far wall. A couple were set near the floor, but more than enough actually ended up chest high to her. She leaned down to peer into the tunnels, though that was more reflex than anything else since there wasn’t any light within.

She extended her Anima along the tunnel, pushing a bit towards the sides, but found little difference from the surrounding rock. After inspecting every tunnel, she shook her head and they all headed back towards base cavern. The wounded were given first aid and carried along. Afterwards, they spent a few hours recovering while Yuriko and the beastkin explored the other tunnels just to find out where they led to.

The one she picked didn’t come out into a cavern by the time she determined that she had to return, so she spun on her heels and ran back, reaching the cavern in a fraction of the time she spent carefully exploring.

They spent a couple more days exploring the branching tunnels, but all of them eventually led to dead ends or narrowed too much to pass. They moved back one more tunnel along their original course and explored those branches, too.

It was after the third cavern back that she finally found something. Alongside one of the tunnels that exited above the cavern floor was an embedded bit of runescript-laden metal. It was smaller than the orichalcum one by half, and it had a greenish shade to it rather than a deep yellow. And it was in a spiky shape rather than an oblong-y point.

“An electrum thorn, you think?” Yuriko asked Gwendith rhetorically, who shrugged. Braden yelled up at her from the floor, and she lifted him using her Animakinesis.

He frowned at the metal, then proclaimed, “Well, it definitely has gold in it. I think it’s mixed with silver too, but it tarnished. Hmm…”

He rubbed his chin as though he had a beard and stared at the metal for a long while, “I think this is it though.”

“That’s what she already said,” Gwendith retorted.

“Oh, right. Ahahaha.”

The tunnel entrance was at least three paces above the cavern floor. The edges were stone and mud, but a bit farther inside, it turned to worked stone, which further added to her confidence that this was a genuine path.

They had just set up their base camp near the entrance tunnel, so she was hesitant to move into the tunnel immediately. Well, tomorrow should work. In the meantime, she could do the preliminary scouting…

“Allow me, young mistress,” Saki said as she hopped up into the tunnel entrance. “Please, take your time and relax. Maybe even let Miss Sharine work on your body.” Saki giggled and winked at Gwendith, who coughed and chuckled awkwardly.

Yuriko rolled her eyes but waved for Saki to proceed. She and the others returned to the campsite.

She intended to begin a training session, but the look on everyone’s faces was that of weariness, so she decided that a rest day was in order. For them, anyway. She didn’t mandate anyone to join her sword training session, but Heron, Gwendith, the twins, and Asami did anyway.

Gwendith’s cousin was particularly eager to work on her staff skills, and Yuriko obliged by drilling and sparring with her. They had dinner afterwards, with the same bland ration bar stew and sweet Wayfarer’s Bread.

There was no way to bathe comfortably or safely in the caverns so to clean up, they only washed their faces and hands. Sweat had built up and her clothes stank, so she went into her tent with the intention to strip, wipe down, and change clothes. Her backpack’s laundry runescript weaving was well worth the coins, and she was happy to abuse it. It’s been less than a year since then, and the weaving was still going strong, with very little wear and tear. Those she repaired as soon as she found them.

Gwendith barged into the tent with a bottle of massage oil and soon had her covered in that stuff, moaning in pleasure as the other girl kneaded away the muscle knots. She returned the favour afterwards and found out how ticklish Gwen was.

The next morning, Saki made her report.

“The tunnel leads to a chamber with another electrum thorn. And when I followed it to the next cavern, I discovered another thorn. I believe that the chain is unbroken here and we can follow it to your destination.”

“Very well. Let us proceed,” Yuriko said solemnly. “Er, after breakfast.”

It took a couple of days traversing the tunnels, but finally, on the eve of the second, they arrived in a massive cavern. The very first clue that gave away the fact that this wasn’t any old cavern was the image of the sky on the ceiling. The Radiant Sun was just about to set in the western Veil at that moment, and the edge of the Luminous Moon was just rising. And then, there were the buildings and pillars. And buildings on pillars! The cavern must have been several longstrides wide.

However, it wasn’t Synkrasia. It was another city, and from the way the ceiling reflection flickered, died, and restarted, there was something deeply wrong with it.