“Red Femorants,” Sheamus said slowly. “A common foe found in the Chaos Sea’s untamed Fysallis. And the depths of a plane.”

“You didn’t say anything before,” Yuriko said sharply.

“What’s to say?” Sheamus shrugged. “They’re pests. They may look like human insect hybrids but they have less of a mind than a common swarmling.”

“So what are they doing?”

Sheamus shrugged, “I’ll have to see. But, are they seemingly going round and round in circles doing nothing else?”

“If you consider the entire city to be a circle, probably?” Yuriko answered.

The group had settled down for the evening and were discussing their findings over dinner. The remaining unawakened looked distinctly uncomfortable underground, much less the dangerous circumstances they found themselves in, but they had chosen to accompany her and her team after all. Right now, there was some space to conduct training, but unless they secured the perimeter properly, that would be a foolish endeavour. Instead, the exercises she had them do for now involved meditation to feel the flow of ambient Chaos. It would be much easier down here than on the surface as the density was a bit higher.

After she returned to the barracks, Saki continued her scouting. She returned after a couple of hours having followed the ants around part of the city, and confirmed that although they followed the roads and alley, it was as much of a circle as they could do.

“Then,” Sheamus shivered. “It would be unwise to carelessly strike. The circle, and whatever pattern they’re walking, is a runescript spell.”

Yuriko’s eyes widened. “What?”

“I’ve seen reports of it in the Adventurer’s Guild, and warnings, of course. Red Femorants form runescript circles naturally when they’re trying to hold a space. Whatever’s in the city, they want it.”

“Whatever for?”

“Who knows? Perhaps the queen ant needs it to lay her eggs, or it's a resource they’re using to improve the next generation. It really depends on what they’re hoarding.” Sheamus leaned forward, “The question really is, if whatever’s there is worth the trouble.”

“Well, the city centre’s in the midst of their circle,” Yuriko said crossly, “and we need to get there.”

“Do we?” Sheamus frowned. “Couldn’t we circle around and look for another exit towards Synkrasia?”

“Oh, uhm, er…” Yuriko spluttered while Sheamus grinned at her. “I didn’t think of it.”

“It’s quite alright, young mistress,” he said, with a little bit of emphasis on the young. “It doesn’t hurt to check, and who knows, you’re probably right. But, there’s no sense in engaging in combat without more information.”

Yuriko nodded and sighed. She’d focused so much on Synkrasia and the idea that she needed to get to the city centre to find a way that she’d lost sight of other options. Having her thoughts bound in such a way was unpleasant and she should strive to be a bit more flexible. It was just hard to rein in the urge to fight. The Femorants had numbers on their side, and while they weren’t that strong on their own, numbers are a strength all on their own. Which meant they would be a challenge, and she…craved challenges.

Still, she wasn’t the only one to receive the consequences of thoughtless fighting. Besides, this somewhat tempered her urges. She knew, from the second incarnation, what mindless adherence to her instincts could lead to. Balance.

“Let’s find out if we can find another exit before we consider the centre.” She decided. “But we’ll scout the ants’ position and numbers anyway. In preparation for whatever may happen.”

She felt a hint of pride when Sheamus nodded in approval. Confused feelings. Huh. She shook her head and planned tomorrow’s action with the rest of the council. She wasn’t well suited for stealthy scouting, which had been repeatedly pointed out by just about everyone. Then, she got mercilessly teased by Gwendith for sulking. She certainly wasn’t pouting!

She meditated for the night, contemplating on her varied skills, how to improve them, and which weren’t worth retaining.

Her Anima reach had improved slightly faster in the current environment despite the lack of real challenges, which she assumed was because of the higher iarvesh rating. It was roughly a tenth denser than at the surface, so 1.1 iarvesh down here. She didn’t recall Synkrasia’s specific rating, but it was around the same level give or take a few percentage points. Her reach was now at three hundred sixty-two inches, just a bit more than nine paces away from her skin. Gwendith’s was at twenty inches while Heron’s was at fourteen, slightly slower than Gwendith’s growth.

Her Radiant Body Refinement was still at 54% with little change from a couple of weeks ago. She hadn’t been pushing her body training much these days. Still, that 54% was a major increase in her physique, as well as the amount of Radiant energy she could store and call on at once. She hadn’t tested the limits of how strong her body had grown, but she only had to remember her first fight with the Wielder of Divine Flames against the second to qualify the difference.

As for her other techniques, Sorcery was the one she’d been most keen on, especially since her Radiant Lance gave her explosive power in exchange for about a minute of channelling and gathering Animus, ambient Chaos, and Radiant energy. The implement within her Anima contained hundreds of runescript lines that she barely understood. It was a mystery how they got there in the first place. Neither Damien nor Fri’Avgi could explain it. The two voices in her head claimed that Sorcery as she practised it didn’t exist before the Shattering. At least, not in the current form. Back then, it had been called Shaping, and what it did was simply gather ambient Chaos, breaking down what existed if the free amount wasn’t enough, and then simply changing it to suit what was required. The existence of the Implement within the Anima was new. Well, relatively.

It’s still weaker than Shaping. Damien said, and while it's faster than what you could normally manage, you’ll never get better at Shaping if you keep using it as a crutch. Some of the better Shapers in my time, Ellana for one, could Shape faster than you could blink an eye. That’s from countless hours of practice. I suggest practising Shaping rather than trying to decipher the runescript in the Implement. Or do both, if you prefer.

‘Don’t be such a fuddy-duddy, Dame-dame.’ Fri’Agvi teased, ‘Not everything new is bad. It’s limited in scope, but it's fast. Even if Little Dame could eventually Shape faster, she can’t right now.’

So went the circular argument. Yuriko agreed with Fri’Avgi’s assessment anyway, but she wanted to practice Free Shaping too. A few exercises from Damien allowed her to create balls of light from ambient Chaos, which didn’t involve converting said ambient Chaos to Animus or Radiant energy but simply imposing her Will on it. Doing so without changing things around was the difficult thing.

Well, it was better for her to prioritise Sorcerous training over other things at the moment. For one thing, there wasn’t enough secured space to practice the Four Phases or do anything more than bodyweight exercises. More importantly, doing Damien’s ambient Chaos control exercises, with the added twist of converting it to Radiant energy, helped her understand her nascent Ennoia more. Cross-referencing the Implement also helped her understand the underlying patterns of her Ennoia’s lattice, which in turn helped her accelerate its growth. She wasn’t sure what was supposed to happen after the lattice covered her core, but she had an inkling that a choice would have to be made then.

You have followed my Path so far. Damien said, but there have been enough differences that it is not identical. Which is good, since we are two different people.

He was also wary of ‘tainting her understanding’, as he put it, which could lead to disastrous results. Long used to his obscure rules, Yuriko simply took what she could and progressed on her own.

Thinking about her progress had her mulling over how to defeat the ants without getting overrun. One thing that immediately occurred to her was to attack from a different place so that if they chased her, she wouldn’t lead them back to the barracks. Doing so successfully needed her to know where to go, however, which led back to scouting. Even if Saki and the others successfully plot out the city, she’d have to check the routes herself. Otherwise, she might get lost. Which she was rather prone to do, ehehe.

She practised for a couple of hours before she turned in. The next day she would check the surrounding paths, and if there were no other ways towards Synkrasia, then she had a war to fight.

_________

“What… or where in the World are we?” Riley burst out as he and Aidan found themselves in a large cavern. And not just any cavern, but one that had a city inside it. The place must have been a league wide. At least! And the ceiling! Although why a patchwork image of the skies was there, he didn’t know.

They had been travelling, well, escaping, through the tunnels for the past couple of days already. After the wounded had been stabilised and healed by the ship’s healers, they departed from the Chaos Channel as soon as they could.

Riley chose the tunnels that seemed to slope upwards, even if they eventually dipped and turned several times along its passage, he was sure that they had ascended nearly a longstride up already. Unless his sense of distance and direction was off. That was a real possibility since they just came from the Chaos Sea. Still, they should be near the surface already, but why was a city here?

Or a ruin, now that he looked at it more thoroughly. There was a curtain wall which was also surrounded by a moat, or in this case, a ravine that led deeper into the earth. There was a land bridge across the tunnel they popped out of, and in the distance, he could see more bridges. There were twin pillars in the centre of the city, but that was the only landmark he could see clearly. Everything else was either shadowed or blocked from easy view.

“The last intersection is several leagues away.” Aunt Layla said before Riley could suggest turning back. “I’m not sure going through here is a bad idea. If anything, there should be a clearer path to the surface from here. We’d make easier time if we find that route instead of mucking around with tunnels and caverns.”

“This place…feels ominous,” Riley muttered.

Aunt Layla shrugged while gesturing towards the sides. There was no way to access the other tunnels without going through the city, unless they carved a path through the walls, or flew. Carefully, they crossed the land bridge. It led to a passage through the wall, which didn’t have a gate or anything to block their path. Kind of weird considering this place looked like a fortified city.

The tunnel wasn’t too long, but the entirety of the ships’ survivors would have fit inside. Leadership of this expedition had shifted from the ships’ captains, of which only Captain Brogin as the other two had perished. Brogin was entirely unsuited for military action, so the ship marines had taken over. Well, Aunt Layla bossed everyone around too, but her speciality gave her that leeway.

They spread out once they reached the city’s interior. Almost all of the survivors were ship’s marines, while a fraction of the hundred and forty were officers and crewmembers. The crew members and officers formed the core of their formation since they held the beacons that the temp legion needed to bypass the blockades. What they needed to do now was reach the surface, preferably, near the Veil and far from Tidelands and Channels. Afterwards, they would have to damage the planar Veil, though only in a way to create a new Channel and a tether to the Imperial plane of Delovine.

Half an hour later and the forward scouts came running back, panic clear on their faces. Riley grunted in annoyance while stroking his Plasma Caster. It looked like they would still have to fight their way out.