“Where have you been?” Yuriko’s sharp tone took Casper Nichols aback, and he answered instinctively.

“Across the ocean and inspecting the…wait! Why are you asking me that?” His eyes grew wider than seemed humanly possible, though since he was facing her, nobody else noticed.

Yuriko sniffed. “I wanted to talk to you the day after, but you fled rather quickly.”

“Who wouldn’t? After you beat me up and broke my life’s work?” he groused.

“You were the one who started hostilities,” Yuriko pointed out.

“Me? You just started absorbing the crystal!”

“Oh, did I? Ehehehe.” Yuriko stuck out her tongue and the First Archon trembled in anger.

“Yes!”

“F-first Archon!” Douglas, who had been studying the runescript copies at the desk a few paces away, looked up and recognised the nominal head of the Karcellian Mages’ Society. He jumped to his feet, stubbed his toes on the table leg, and winced, as he tendered his greetings.

Nichols, who was still in his human disguise, gave Douglas a cursory glance and nodded, “Apprentice Hart.”

“Ah, yes, sir!”

“Hmmm, some privacy is in order. Do you mind if you and apprentice Worrington left the room?”

“Not at all, sir!” He jumped to his feet at practically dragged Darren out of the room, leaving just Yuriko and Nichols alone. Gwendith wasn’t in the base, having taken a day trip back to Lindorn to…er, shop.

“So, what do you want?” Yuriko asked once they were alone.

Nichols sniffed and grumbled, “You broke the gathering crystal and it would take decades, if not centuries to make another with the same accumulation. You owe me.”

“Alright.” Yuriko said, “However, you broke the seed, so I think that makes us even.”

“That seed was part of the crystal!” Nichols yelled, only to freeze when Yuriko giggled.

“I know. Sorry.” Yuriko sighed, “It was not my intention, but, well, I apologise. So, what can I do for you?”

“Erm, uhm.” He coughed, then sighed. “The highlands. It’s at the northern end of the Commonwealth, and…”

Yuriko raised an eyebrow. “That’s where the Confederacy attacked?”

“Yes, and they succeeded. The scope of that attack was dozens of times larger than the other two.”

“What?” Yuriko gasped.

“Yes, nearly a hundred thousand daemons.” He scowled at her. “Your fault…” He raised his hands placatingly when she growled at him, “Yes, yes, not entirely yours, but causation.” He shook his head, “I didn’t think the Confederacy would act to ally themselves with those rats from Zaru’sia.”

“Zaru’sia?” The name was unfamiliar, though from the context, where the daemons came from.

“The daemons’ home and prison.”

“Is that in the Abyss?”

“One of its layers.”

“Oh. Uhm, do you know the level?” Yuriko asked.

Nichols frowned, “I think between fifty and a hundred? Nobody really knows how deep the Abyss goes, and how dense the Chaos there is.” He added.

“Fifty to a hundred iarvesh?” Yuriko gulped. She knew she could survive that depth, but whether she would be able to move properly there was another matter entirely. At those levels, the speed of Animus recovery was moot, since anyone with a depleted reserve would be filled up in seconds.

“Anyway, a hundred thousand daemons, plus a few hundred soldiers have battered their way through the defences and moved into the highlands.” He pointed at the copies of the runescript circle, “And I think they managed to keep their rift open, so who knows how many daemons are there now. The only good news is that the Confederacy’s ships had retreated, and the army amassed in Norrinth had been moved east. Those bastards!”

“Is their leader not one of your kind?” Yuriko asked quietly.

“No.” Nichols gave her an offended look. “There’s only two of us here, and Ally is in the eastern kingdom of Aralia.” He muttered under his breath, “I should have gone there instead. At least I wouldn’t have to hide my ears.”

“The beastkin nation?” Yuriko asked.

“It’s not just beastkin,” Nichols said curtly. “Anyway, I’d like for your help freeing the highlands.”

Yuriko nodded. “I understand, but…” she drew the word out which made the other man squirm, “Afterwards, I and my friends will leave.”

“Leave? Irvalla? After all the mess you did?”

“We have our own circumstances and our own wars to fight,” Yuriko said firmly. “I realised that we’ll have to exit from the same place we entered from, so we’ll be heading back into Richmond territory.”

“I see,” Nichols grunted. “By yourselves?”

“If we have to.”

“You might get overwhelmed.”

“We’ll manage.”

“I see, then…Karcellia will not be ungrateful. A daemon enclave is trouble and fighting them without Animus techniques or Animatech will be costly. I’m not saying we can’t do it, but the cost of lives will be too much. Not to mention if they keep that rift open it’ll cause the ambient Chaos to rise too much.”

“Oh, so then what will you do?” She had an inkling, but she wasn’t sure if she would want their help. At least, not directly.

“We’ll need to liberate Norrinth, after all.”

Yuriko muttered. “Why did you let this war happen in the first place?”

“You seem to have the mistaken idea that we’re here to control everything.” Nichols laughed. “That goes against my ritual’s mission. We are not to interfere directly, or cause things to unbalance too much. And besides, the Richmond Confederacy’s Tyrant is as much a product of the times and circumstances as anything else. His presence also spurs development, so from a certain point of view, his existence is very much needed here. Unfortunately, the daemon rifts unbalance things too much, though thanks to your presence, the scales weigh even. Or they will after you win.”

“Alright.” Yuriko paused, then said, “I hope you’re not expecting me to march to the highlands alone.”

“Of course not. The army won’t allow it. We’ll attach you and yours to a battle group.”

Yuriko’s eyes narrowed. “Independent command.”

“Ahahaha, but of course.” Nichols brushed it off while his expression indicated the opposite. “But at least know the battle plans to you don’t get in each other's way.”

“Agreed.”

___________

Since Yuriko wanted to return to Rumiga as soon as possible, especially since whatever it was that called to her here was already hers, she had little reason to dawdle.

Well, there was still something here that her Anima wanted, but it wasn't the overwhelming need that had nearly overcome her consciousness before.

Either way, they couldn't linger here, so given Nichols' word, she hurried to the northern highlands to wipe out the daemon enclave.

Her friends, Gwendith and Heron specifically, wanted to come along, but she told them in no uncertain terms, to follow with the rest of the clean-up force.

She took a ride on the railways north, which brought her to the Burgheron City, which was near the eastern coast, roughly a hundred and fifty leagues from Lindorn. From there, it was another fifty leagues north to the enclave, but that was well within the highlands. On average, the terrain was filled with mountain plateaus that were five hundred to a thousand paces above sea level. It was cold, windy, and it rained every day.

She flew using her Anima wings, and using her Animakinesis to push against the air. A while back, she tried shaping her Anima to mimic the aircraft’s propeller and wings. But without the engines making it spin, it was really no different from directly pushing. She could mimic the shape and function of the engine too, however, it also required some sort of fuel to make it turn. In her case, it was the consumption of Animus as well as other materials such as air and water. Either way, it was a waste of Animus for her to mimic and use an engine with internal combustion. She supposed she could mimic an Animus Engine instead, but her skills and knowledge were far from that point.

It seemed that the highlands were sparsely populated, even though she could see refugee caravans already leaving through a couple of main roads. It seemed that there was a castle on practically every second hilltop. Not all of them were in habitable shape, and in fact, many looked like square stones piled up on top of each other. She was certain that each one had a basement or catacomb of sorts, which was probably where the daemons were hiding. She couldn’t find a single one from the air.

She spotted several burning, burnt, and practically charcoaled villages, however. She alighted at each one and searched the vicinity for survivors. For the ones reduced to ashes, there was no one, while for the ones still burning, she saw nothing but dismembered corpses. She did find tracks and, as she suspected, they led to one of the nearby castle ruins.

All this in a couple of days? Yuriko growled as she spread her Anima as far as it could go. She even forced her perception through the stones, and not just followed the twists and turns of the underground. She found fifty crimson apes gnawing on bones underneath.

“Die.”

So incensed was she that she didn’t even realise that it was her Mien that responded, not her Anima. The crimson apes stiffened, then slumped into themselves as their innards, muscles, and bones turned to ashes. The skin and fur disintegrated last, but for a long moment, the space was filled with floating skin bags filled with ashes, before they…popped.

A moment later, Yuriko felt a wave of weakness pass through her mind, and she nearly collapsed to her knees. She gritted her teeth and allowed her anger to strengthen her resolve.

The next few castles she investigated, and caught daemon apes in half of them. But their numbers were too few. There were a hundred thousand of them, right, but she had only eliminated a couple of thousand individuals that afternoon. At the rate she was going, it would take Seasons to wipe them out, and that’s if their portal didn’t spew out more of them.

She flew back up as high as she could until she could see the western and eastern coast at the same time. The highlands were at least forty to fifty leagues wide, and there were countless ravines, valleys, and hidden groves. She couldn’t find a large concentration of the daemons, and even when she activated Chaos Sight, she could see no strong concentrations of ambient Chaos.

Searching by herself would take long days, and there was no telling if the daemons would double back once she was gone.

And what further cemented the idea that the daemons were avoiding her was the fact that when she actually sighted a pillaging group, the whole lot of them turned tail and scattered at the sight of her. She caught half of them, but the rest had scattered. The buggers were fast.

She returned to Burgheron City that evening. Her friends and the Karcellian Army were not yet there. In fact, she heard that it would take several days to mobilise a battle force, so she was very much alone in the city.

She wondered how many the daemons had killed, and it suddenly occurred to her that she didn’t see any of the Confederate soldiers, their weapons, or their landcraft. After she ate a hasty dinner, and after she packed supplies into her backpack, she set off once again to make sure that the refugees would reach safety. There were far too many, and too far apart to gather in one spot, so she kept her surveillance in the upper atmosphere. At the level of her Anima strength, she could stay in the cold and thin air without much issue, and she used the adverse conditions to increase her Radiant Body Refinement.

The refugee caravans had settled for the night. They doused their lights too, but she remembered where they were and frequently scanned them every half hour or so. She didn’t meditate or sleep that night, and by dawn’s light, she was relieved to see that none had been attacked.

It took nearly a week before they reached Burgheron’s vicinity, and by that time, the army had finally arrived.