“What did you say! How dare you…!”

“What can someone like you know…?”

“You dare!”

Sheamus concealed a chuckle behind his hands, though Yuriko noticed it anyway. Eleven of the students, except for Douglas, were shouting, while he was frowning.

“Silence,” Yuriko said softly, but with the word infused with Will and her Mien, all of them found their mouths suddenly snapping shut. “I see a simple demonstration is in order.” She held out a finger then infused her nail with Empowered Strike. “Sheamus.”

“Yes, my lady.” He chuckled and fished out a steel plate. He held it in both hands and presented it to her.

Yuriko brought her finger close to the plate, and slowly pressed the tip against it. A moment later, her finger penetrated through. Then, she retrieved most of the Animus she invested into her finger. Next, she fished out a sheet of paper from the desk set on the opposite side of the stage. The students’ eyes followed the paper as it floated towards her. “Sheamus, use your blade please. Unenhanced.”

“As you wish.” The adventurer unsheathed his belt knife while Yuriko held the paper by a corner. Her infused Animus forced it to stay stiff. “Hah!” Sheamus yelled as he thrust with the knife. The tip was aimed at the center of the sheet, and as soon as the steel struck, it bounced off.

“Again, this time with Animus. Match my two lumens.”

Sheamus did so, coating the blade with his Animus. Without using one of his bound spirits, the colour of his glow was a pale silver. He thrust the blade against her paper shield, and this time, Animus on Animus clashed, and burned away the lumens protecting both weapons. After which, the knife naturally pierced the paper.

“As you can see,” Yuriko said to her round-eyed audience, “Animus invested into mere paper has the strength to block a knife thrust. If any of you have guns, it should amount to the same thing. Hmmm, but taking into account the sheer kinetic force of a bullet, it might consume a lumen in defence. But a skilled practitioner can mitigate even that. Questions? Ah, you may speak.”

For a long moment, nobody said anything, but the female student, with sparkling eyes, asked, “How?”

“As you can see,” Yuriko said softly, but every one of them clung to her every word, “the merest investment of Animus can overcome any force without it. Your predecessors have made a mistake. External manipulation of ambient Chaos, occult resonance, is legitimate, but you’ve neglected to strengthen yourselves. You,” she pointed at the woman, “your name?”

“Ah! Er, Darl…Darren.”

Yuriko smiled, “Strike me with your flames.”

“Eh! But…”

“Do it.”

“Ah, yes!” The girl took her spell card from her container, murmured a few words that caused resonance with the runescript formation, conjured a fistful of fire, and flung it at Yuriko.

The fire would have been snuffed as soon as it touched her condensed aura, but Yuriko delicately plucked it from the air. She receded her aura away from her hand and allowed the flames to touch her skin. Then, she shifted the angle of her hand so that they could see her palm. The fire burned merrily, fueled by the ambient Chaos gathered from the air and from the card’s inked lines, but it did nothing to her at all.

With a wry smile, she snuffed the flames by closing her fist. The students’ eyes changed from hostility to admiration. Even Douglas’ eyes were practically sparkling.

“Now then, your method of external manipulation is best paired with a robust body. None of you,” she sniffed, “are in shape. So that’s what we’re going to do.” She glanced at Sheamus who winced exaggeratedly, “What?”

“I’m not sure they’ll survive your training, young mistress,” he whispered.

Yuriko said confidently, “They will.”

The unawakened Haveenians and Kadracki had been awakened by her. She could do the same with these people. Only, the ambient Chaos was too sparse, but perhaps that only meant she would have finer control over the process. She could feel her Anima pulsing as it touched the boundaries of its limits. Shaking her head, she pushed those thoughts away.

“We were born with cores that can store Animus,” she said, “but you are not. We will need to strengthen your physiques to the point where you can form your own Animus cores.”

“Ma’am, what’s a core and…?”

“An Animus core is formed within your Anima, but there are traces of it within the physical body,” Yuriko answered. “For most, it is located here,” she pointed to her tummy, close to her navel.

Sheamus coughed. “Some have it within the heart, too, but the initial location isn’t really relevant. Different disciplines move the core, either entirely within the Anima, as you Imperials do, or into spirit bound objects as Spirit Binders do. As for your lineages, you will have to discover on your own…” He hesitated and looked at her, “Spirit Binding is not a secret and I believe the Eternal Empire knows the processes, too.”

Yuriko shrugged, “I’m not sure either. But the Imperial method cannot be taught, at least not without undergoing the Atavism Ritual. I don’t mind if you teach Spirit Binding.”

Sheamus bowed, “Very well.”

“Now then, I think it's time we hone your bodies. A nice run around the campus should do.”

________

Darla Worrington could barely breathe through her mouth. The stitch on her side made her want to curl up and die. Sweat poured down her brow, and threatened to blind her, but she persevered. She had to.

If she turned her head slightly, she could see the angelic woman who turned out to be a remorseless daemon instead! But even so, with her gender, she held enormous power. And that power was something she wanted for herself. And she would follow whatever hellish training she was put through, as long as she could grasp even a fraction of that power.

“Alright! Now let’s do some bodyweight training!” Lady Yuriko said enthusiastically, and the class collectively groaned. They’d run several kilocubits already, and everytime they floundered, the golden light around that demonic woman flared and injected them with some kind of stimulant. The pain wouldn’t disappear, but they would once again hold the strength to continue.

“H-how long…are we going to do this?” Andre Silva, the class lead stammered out.

“Hmmm, oh, not long. Just a couple more hours,” Lady Yuriko hummed.

Her delicate-looking fingers tapped her lips. Honestly, she was so well proportioned that her height wasn’t that apparent without a proper reference point. She was taller than most of the men, and Darla didn’t know how she managed to look statuesque and delicate at the same time…

Wait. Two more hours?! One Above…kill her now.

__________

Douglas Hart sat in meditation. It wasn’t the first time, of course. Part of arcane studies included such exercises in order to train their visualisation techniques. Using spell cards wasn’t all about words and gestures, but one had to mobilise one’s Will and being able to imagine down to the last detail what one wanted to accomplish was paramount to successful spell usage.

But now, it wasn’t about visualising. It was about sensing occult resonance as it interacted with his body.

It had been nearly a week since Miss Davar began teaching, and it had been nothing more than physical training followed by meditation while being bathed in her golden light. That had come as a surprise. Miss Davar glowed with the light of the sun! And, she was powerful beyond measure.

He wondered if she really was as young as she looked.

‘No, that’s probably not right. The First Archon looked young, too, but father remembered learning from the august man back when he was a lad.’

The First had looked much the same. Perhaps Miss Davar was much older than she looked. Her knowledge and power certainly indicated as much.

‘No, no. Focus!’

Visualise. Occult resonance. It was an invisible force. Unless one cast Astral Sight, of course. But even without it, one should be able to feel it. Especially after working so long with spell cards and foci. Now, he needed to sense, and touch, occult resonance without resorting to reactive malachite.

He could feel the warmth radiating from Miss Davar. It was…comforting and frightening at the same time. He’d seen her utilise that light to carry things. And also to destroy. Part of their training involved a set of movements that was supposed to attract occult resonance, but they’d had limited success. His muscles and limbs just wouldn’t comport precisely enough to his Will. And that was why they were training now.

But the idea of occult resonance responding to a set of body movements seemed ridiculous, and if not for how Miss Davar did it, it would have been impossible to believe. Granted, nobody had managed to replicate the feat, so there was that. Ah, no one amongst the Karcellians anyway. Miss Sharine, who seemed to be Miss Davar’s close confidant, was able to perform the same manoeuvres and have occult resonance occur.

Ah, Miss Sharine. She was so cute! He shivered.

‘One Above, I’m hopelessly infatuated.’

Objectively, Miss Davar was much more beautiful, she was also rather intimidating. Like a queen. If a queen met a peasant, the latter would abase themselves. But even so, the monarch might not even deign to notice them.

…and he was letting his mind wander again.

Focus, focus!

Ahh. How long will it take to learn? Already, he’d lost weight and fat, but in return, gained lean muscle. But then again, he left home so he didn’t have to enlist, didn’t he? Wasn’t this much worse?

Hmmm? What was that light? Golden motes floating in the air, visible even though his eyes were closed?

He reached for it…and it slipped into his mind. It burned on the way in and remained a smouldering ember. But wasn’t this it? Animus?

But when he opened his eyes, it was already gone, and only the burning sensation remained. Was it a dream?

He looked up and started when he met Yuriko’s blazing golden eyes. The colour receded back to her normal pale blue, and her smile made his heart skip a beat.

“It seems you’ve met with some success. Congratulations.”

Douglas’ smile could have reached his ears.

_________

On the way back from the campus, Yuriko saw Heron and the twins, as well as Gwendith and Asami, outside of her cottage.

“Yuri!” Gwendith yelled while waving her hands.

“Hello! What have you all been up to?” Yuriko laughed.

“We’ve been exploring the city,” Heron said. “It’s quite an interesting place, even if they’re currently on a war footing.”

“Yup, everything’s bustling, and there are thousands of them on the streets!” Braden laughed.

“Anyway,” Heron coughed, “we discovered something rather interesting there. Would you like to go to the theatre?”

“Theater?” Yuriko paused. The last time she’d been to a performance was before the training camp after her Atavism. “Who’s performing?”

“That’s just it!” Heron exclaimed. “Nobody is!”

“Huh?”

“I mean, there are no people actually performing in the theatres, but rather, thanks to a mysterious invention, they managed to make pictures move and speak! And those, tell the stories!”

“Yup, yup!” Gwendith giggled. “Asami and I went to one, and it was interesting! Let’s go watch one!”

“Eh, uh, alright. Desire?”

The boys and two girls exchanged looks, and Gwendith said in a low voice, “She’s sleeping.”

Yuriko swallowed nervously. How long was Desire asleep everyday? Her waking period didn’t exceed four hours now. They had to return to the Chaos Sea, or better yet, back to Rumiga. But even so, she still hadn’t discovered how to leave this place.

Well, she learned about the Bore in the library, but that place was in the middle of the Outer Ocean. In the midst of war, no one could spare any ships to take them, and she wasn’t confident in finding the place by herself. Their best chance was to either repair the portal back in Richmond, or find another one. There were many old castles in the country, as well as the mainland. And perhaps she could find a hidden site there. But she only intended to go after fulfilling her side of the bargain with the Karcellians. They had provided aid, and she’d like to repay in kind.

Shaking off her melancholy, she said, “Hmmm, yes, I think I’d like to see that for myself. When are we going?”

“Tonight,” Gwendith answered.

“Alright.” Yuriko smiled. She could use a night out in the city.