A strange sensation filled Yuriko’s mind. It was pulling at her, down into dreams. She knew that if she succumbed, she’d fall asleep. Then who knew when she’d awaken?

Not yet. Not yet.

She glared at Casper Nichols, who flinched and scooted away, all while his bunny ears lay flat against his head. His nose was twitching nervously, as were his whiskers. Ancestors, that was cute…

Shaking her head, she growled. “What…was…it? Where did you find the seed?”

He shook his head and said, “It’s always been there! And now, the Chaos chamber’s ruined! The weaving isn’t enough to hold the Chaos crystal together!”

Sure enough, the cracked shard was falling apart. Most of it was being devoured by Fri’Avgi, and a fraction was being absorbed by her Anima. Her reach had already exceeded twenty paces, more than double what she had before. It felt…shallow, however, and clumsy. Nothing training wouldn’t help, but the power it gave her was something she needed to get used to. Twenty-two.

It was a good thing for Fri’Avgi, and she heard the animating spirit murmuring in her mind. Damien had fallen silent already, leaving her with a satisfied snort. Her Mien…that part of her was swelling and growing stronger. Frighteningly so…

“You…” Yuriko grunted, “I will speak with you…after all of this.”

“Ah! What? You…” Casper stopped cowering and there was a light of hope behind his eyes. Heron snorted in annoyance. “Thank you, I guess? Ah! But the crystal!”

“Why are you so focused on keeping Chaos away from the people here anyway?” she demanded.

“That’s my task! To continue developing a civilisation that isn’t tainted by Chaos! Accursed Abyss! Now I’ll need to find another seed. Good thing there are other crystals…” He slapped a hand over his mouth and his eyes rolled. “Pretend you didn’t hear that!”

Yuriko grunted and said, “Whatever.”

She stared at the now rapidly sublimating crystal and drew in as much as she could. It took a few more minutes, most of which she spent shifting her weight from one foot to the other, all while feeling her body was on fire. Not from the Chaos, but from the need to subsume the multi-hued mote resting within her core. It was starting to resonate painfully with her body and was perhaps trying to escape.

Once all of the Chaos was gone, down into her tummy and into Fri’Avgi’s, she said, “Heron…take me away.”

“Eh? Ah, yes!” he stuttered as she stumbled into his arms.

She glared at Casper, who shuddered and looked away. Heron supported her by holding her around her waist. Her knees were feeling shaky and she almost collapsed when she took a step. Her Animakinesis was working fine, but she felt a shakiness within it that told her that controlling it would become harder the longer she tried to suppress the assimilation.

“Ah!” she squeaked indignantly as Heron shifted to carry her in his arms. She saw Casper’s lips curl derisively until she slammed down on him with her Animakinesis. A few moments later, Heron had run out the chamber, out of the tunnels, and then, out of the estate.

Yuriko struggled to pull in her expanded Anima, or even to just thin it out, but she was at full flare, and it was incredibly noticeable. At least until the two of them entered a grove thick enough to block the light.

“I…will probably fall unconscious,” Yuriko said. “Please…”

“I’ll keep you safe, don’t worry,” Heron said softly.

He laid her down on a hollow, though only after he spread his overcoat to cover the fallen leaves. She leaned back against the trunk as she assumed a seated meditation pose, then, Willed the multi-hued mote to assimilate.

Her mind turned to darkness.

___________

Her eyes opened, and she stared in a moment of confusion. Her? No, his.

Damien felt his connection to his forces, and he grinned. The deeper layers of the Abyss were well known for messing with the mind, and with the thing he was hunting even his mind fortress could break open with carelessness.

Connections with his Anima pinpointed his troops. Athrodius 1 through 12 were spread out several leagues ahead, while hundreds of drones filled the gap. Normally, his army would have consisted equally of mortals he’d spent some time training. In the Abyss, the fewer minds affecting the nearby space, the better. His Will stabilised the surroundings, of course, but there was no need to make the task harder.

This layer of the Abyss didn’t simulate a sky. In fact, it looked more like they were indoors, amidst grand hallways with domed ceilings. Light came from chandeliers spread equidistantly, and were almost precisely ten paces from any other lamp. Almost. The imprecision bothered his sensibilities, made him irritable, and was the reason why it was there. One could not be too comfortable in a war.

As for what they were fighting, Emerys’ children and minions were strange beings. The drones to the southwest were being driven back by a company of them, chimaeras that blended the strengths of dozens if not hundreds of others, even if outwardly, they looked like mortals. Ah, his Warforged were losing.

Chuckling to himself, he expanded his Anima, not in a wide sphere, but in long tendrils that connected to each element of his army. The tendrils slipped into the drones, and into their cores, and it suddenly felt like his hands were wearing the Warforged like gloves. Well, if he had hundreds of hands, heh.

The drones were being crushed, and overpowered, so thoroughly that the chimaeras were screaming in joy and victory. Then, he began the dance. The drones’ stiff movements melted into divine fluid grace. The metallic constructs baited, dodged, struck, and killed the chimeric beings, overturning their previous disadvantage and driving back the ambush. The same thing happened several leagues away, with different screens of drones, and different chimeras.

Things would have been much simpler if Damien took a direct hand, but if he did, he knew his quarry would flee. In the Abyss, the range his Anima and Domain could reach was limited, a fraction of what it normally would up in the surface level, and was not nearly enough to engulf the entire Abyssal level. He had no doubt Emerys knew he was here, but this gentle foreplay was the way to keep the Primordial’s interest. Hopefully just long enough so that Damien could rip its heart out and subsume its Authority.

He had reached Ascendance into Divinity, but he’d lingered at this stage for far too long. Seizing another’s Domain was one path while developing a new one was another. However, his primary Authority was Conquest, hence the first option was the best. And given his proclivities, seizing the Primordial Emerys’ primary Domain seemed the most…pleasurable.

The dance of warfare continued. His drones were destroyed, while the chimaeras were decimated. His other drones brought back the remains and he allowed his other followers to rebuild them. This foray had lasted years already, but he was closing in on the slippery Primordial, and soon, he would take it.

__________

More memories filled Yuriko’s mind, of the campaign, of the battles and wars Damien fought as he delved into the Abyss. She felt and experienced everything he did, almost akin to her incarnations. His attitudes and principles bled into her, and she struggled. She couldn’t keep them out, they were actually close to her own ideals of freedom and power, but their flavour was distinctly different. Notwithstanding that he almost always ended the day and the evening with several women. Different women at that, with no single one repeating the night. Where and how he managed to get them into the Abyss was a mystery, and actually, a big point of interest as maybe it was a way she could learn how to travel between the levels of the Chaos Sea.

Suffering through all that, especially from the vantage point of the opposite sex, was more than a little annoying, and, she had to admit, interesting.

She felt the dreams coming to a close, and the greatest battle to come. She let go of all her reservations, as the chance to see how beings of power leagues above her own was nearly impossible to witness at her level.

__________

As the last chimaera, Damien grinned as the shadowed form of Emerys’ form roiled in disappointment. The Primordial’s primary avatar was across the table as the two of them shared tea as though they were bosom friends. Emerys knew of his purposes, of course, but having Lust and Desire as its Domain, he’d managed to pique its interest enough for the challenge. He’d allowed himself to be drawn to its games, and finally, they were at a stalemate. The first few ones had gone to the Primordial’s side, but as he adapted, and as part of his plan, he slowly caught up, and finally, a tie.

The Avatar was a featureless shadow, but only in so much that images and figures half-glimpsed in its lightless depths inflamed the imagination. Here was a conquest that would be worthy of his name. Damien smirked, even as the avatar shifted in discomfort.

It is your choice next. Emerys said.

“Very well. Now what shall we do?” Damien’s smirk grew wider. “I know, why don’t we…”

_________

Yuriko shivered as Damien’s emotions washed over her. As he fought the Primordial, she could feel his hunger and lust rising. She didn’t know how the man had not been defeated by his feelings already, except for Damien’s Domain. Conquest. Clearly, it wasn’t just battles. The concept was too much for her mind to grasp, but she had an inkling that any contest, any battle, whether in words, fighting, deeds, or even sex, was under its purview.

He manipulated the Primordial like a fiddle, drawing it deep into his game, and now…

__________

The land underneath his feet quaked. Fissures broke open, and blood poured out of it, flooding the empty plane. Emerys’ avatar was nowhere in sight, but its enormous body was there. It was the entire layer of the Abyss, and Damien’s sword had cut it asunder.

He was surrounded by his billowing Anima, which had spread to cover the entire land. Emerys’ struggled to fight its assimilation, but its Anima burned against Damien’s Radiant energy.

It wasn’t just Radiant, however. Yuriko was half-conscious here. She had not been able to sink into the dream, and she was simultaneously herself as well as her Ancestor. Bloodshed. Broken bodies, broken constructs. And now, the plane’s Anima was being subsumed.

Mercy!

Emerys screamed, but Damien didn’t falter. Instead, his evil smirk only grew wider. “Your Heart. The core of your being, bring it out, and I might show mercy. Come now, it’s only one of them.”

No!

“Lust shall be mine. You’ve leeched enough power from the surface, and all you’ve done with it, is what? Create a paradise all for your lonesome? I will put that Domain to greater use!”

Argh!

The sword in Damien’s hand rose higher, Radiant energy gathered, tempered by Luminous, and a hint of dark Nether. How did he control all of it? Yuriko wondered, even as she shuddered away from the all-devouring darkness.

Then, he stabbed the blade into the earth. A shockwave travelled from the epicentre all the way to the edges, and the plane started to break apart. She felt Damien could have destroyed the Primordial by himself, but he thought it to be a waste of a Domain.

I yield!

From the centre of the plane, a black sphere made of silken threads was pushed out. Damien’s blade sliced and cut all the threads that bound it to its former master. His lips twisted into a smirk, as the cocoon unravelled and revealed…

Yuriko blinked.

Damien’s jaw fell as he gaped. In front of him was the most gorgeous creature he’d ever beheld, so much so that he questioned if the Heart’s Domain was actually Beauty, not Lust.

But Yuriko recognized the woman as memories buried in her mind tore free. It was the Mishala Ancestor, looking far too innocent to be true. But Damien was instantly smitten. He reached for her naked body and pulled her close. She melted into his arms, and their lips met…

__________

Yuriko woke up abruptly, feeling all of Damien’s lust and other emotions. Her mind was flooded and for a long moment, she was utterly confused. She was Yuriko. She was Damien. And now…

Eh? Who was she kissing?