There was one difference that Yuriko immediately noticed. When she entered the Chaos Lake near Synkrasia, she could manipulate the surroundings to bring her towards her goal, now however, she felt the space around her resist her manipulation. She wondered if it was because of how they entered or maybe it was the Femorant Queen that was keeping things stable.

She did sense that familiar presence, but she pulled her Anima probe away from that direction, hoping to avoid the Queen’s attention. She wasn’t sure if she succeeded, because as soon as they went around the turn, she found another dozen Femorant warriors rushing towards them. Yuriko glanced at her Da, who nodded and gestured towards them. Grinning, Yuriko let loose with her sunshards. The Femorants were already well within her range, and a moment later, all dozen of them fell after the shards pierced their heads.

Virgil whistled appreciatively. “My baby’s all grown up,” he said with a grin, prompting another heady rush of happiness in Yuriko. “Ah, you don’t need Plasma weaponry…hmmm, I was going to give you a sword, but I think it's the same kind of weapon you found…in Synkrasia, wasn’t it?”

“Yup. It’s connected to Siderious, and the portal there should have opened here,” Yuriko said, “But I don’t know what happened to make it bring us to Irvalla, instead.”

She’d touched upon her adventures yesterday, of course, but there hadn’t been enough time to go over everything. They spoke of it idly now, while they continued walking. The tunnel didn’t have any branches, and at every turn, they encountered increasing numbers of Femorants.

Virgil and Yuriko took turns wiping them out. After the first couple of times, when Da killed the ants with two bolts, he scrunched his nose then killed the next set with just a single reinforced bolt. The Animus coating his plasma bolt thickened enough that it was able to penetrate seven or so Femorants before sputtering out on the eight. He frowned at that and altered his target points, managing to kill the ants while lessening the wasted plasma. He did that by striking a glancing blow against their neck, which nevertheless hit a major artery or something since the Ants bled out instead of being decapitated. End result was they were dead, and it just took a minute to die instead of instantly. Consequently, Virgil used less lumens, and eventually, less reinforcement into his bolts than he initially did.

Yuriko continued to kill with direct blows to the glabella, and while her sunshards were tough enough to last a long time, she eventually mimicked her Da in trying to go for the most efficient way to kill. She kept most of the sunshards hovering around her while she used a single shard to dance between the ants. It was fun, actually, figuring out what the least resistant path was, and which points of the ant were the most vulnerable and would take the least effort to damage. Since the Femorants, as long as they were of the same caste, had near identical bodies, finding the vital point was easy, and it was near the exact point in the others. Her Anima perception certainly helped in pinpointing that, even better than whatever technique Da used. Of course, it was because the enemy was already within her Anima, but Virgil didn’t use any kind of perceptive aura but kept everything within his eyes.

“That’s Enhanced Sight, isn’t it?” She asked after a while.

“Yes, but with my Ennoia, advanced to a certain degree.” Virgil pursed his lips, “It actually combines Chaos and Enhanced Sight, such that I can see Chaos flows and concentrations for leagues.” He grunted at the tunnels, and added with a chuckle, “This place isn’t exactly my favoured grounds.”

He gave her a hug over her shoulders. Heron was as tall as Da now, but Virgil was a bit more slender. Wiry muscles belied his strength, however.

“Last I saw you, you were still a Novice, and now look at you…” he said with a grin. “You’re at the Knight level now, huh? I know you didn’t follow the Imperial Path,” he chuckled, “I’m not sure I approve but well, it’s too late for that, and you seem like you’re thriving.” He patted her shoulder. “Either way, congratulations on your advancement. I said it before, but I still can’t quite believe it, heh. My little girl, all grown up, and in less than three years, too.” He wiped the corner of his eye while warmth blossomed in Yuriko’s chest.

Mum’s congratulations had been something expected back then. But after Sadeen left them for her duties, Yuriko knew they’d grown apart. But Da…she’d been working on earning the Davar Heritage for so long that when she didn’t get it, she was disappointed and even worse, worried about disappointing him. But hearing his words, knowing that he meant it completely with no reservation, made her tear up too. After so long…

She hugged her Da back, and squeezed hard enough that he squeaked, which only prompted her to smirk.

“Cheeky brat,” he laughed. “Haaah, you turned into something none of us expected. I thought you got Sadeen’s Heritage and that you’d be a Sorceress, but you’re a swordswoman instead, and your Ennoia…?”

“Radiant light,” Yuriko said.

“Curious and obscure. I’ve never heard of any Knight-Captain or higher touching that Ennoia. What are its aspects?”

Yuriko shrugged. “Power.”

“So simple?”

“That’s its essence…” Yuriko frowned. While she did believe that Radiant was raw power, she knew it was tempered by other aspects. It revealed hidden things. It burned Chaos. It was extremely potent against aberrant energies, and it was about heat. But at the heart of it, Power. The ability to project her Will into the World and have her way. Power.

Her core resonated with its simplicity, and she glanced at it and her Radiant Essence. The lattice covering her core was almost solid, and the lace work was extremely complex. So complex that she couldn’t really follow it, nor could she reproduce it in any shape or form.

Silently, the lattice work changed. The lines simplified, grew thicker, and seemed to impart profundity. The lines expressed exactly what her initial sentiment was. Power.

A moment later, enlightenment ended and she couldn’t help but gasp at her newfound Essence. Her Ennoia was no longer a simple Ennoia. What had worried her over the long weeks in Irvalla had been undone. And now, another milestone on her path to Transformation has been reached.

Virgil didn’t seem to notice and he was distracted by more Femorants appearing. He shot them down and then turned his attention back to her.

Yuriko smiled and said, “I think I’ve taken another step.”

His answering smile widened, then he reached up and ruffled her hair, to her loud protest.

They entered a large chamber, at least a longstride across. It was filled with Femorant warriors, as well as a couple of larger variants that more than stood out. Yuriko eyed them warily. One had a scorpion’s tail, pincers, and a muscular physique. Its beady eyes zeroed in on them immediately, but contrary to what she expected, it didn’t charge at them. Instead, its antennae swished aggressively and every last Femorant warrior turned and charged towards her. The ground and the space immediately beyond the tunnel weren’t wide enough to hold all of them, so about half climbed up the walls, and a few went up to the ceiling. The other variant had exceptionally thick chitin plates and spikes all over its humanoid body, and that one charged.

Virgil snapped several shots off, each plasma bolt doing the same dance as the ones he used to kill a dozen ants, except this time there were five of them. Yuriko couldn’t quite mimic the same skill, so she defaulted to brutally strike with the shards instead. Each one penetrated the head or neck, though she aimed more towards the throat rather than the skull now. They’d die all the same but would take much less effort.

After an initial volley, Virgil backed into the tunnel. When Yuriko didn’t follow him, he called out. “Come on!”

She shook her head and said, “I'll keep them off you.” None of these creatures could really harm her, but then again, she shouldn’t be overconfident. She also wasn’t sure if Da’s Light Infantry Armour would keep him safe.

She conjured another sunblade while she set the sunshards to revolve around her in intricate patterns reminiscent of the Four Phases. She activated her sword dances and revelled in the fact that she had more than enough Animus to keep all of them active. In fact, she decided to activate the Ender’s Waltz, too, but only for a moment when every last combatant threw out foreshadows of their movements. She honed the waltz to only focus on the variants, disregarding the warriors.

As such, she noticed and moved to eliminate the Femorant Charger even before it came within a dozen paces of her. Even as she danced through the warriors, claiming heads and burning bodies, she punched at the Charger with her Animakinesis. First, she struck its foot just as it landed on the ground, striking it at an angle that forced it to bend or break. Then, an opposite strike to the neck, the other leg, and the shoulders, all within instants of each other. The resulting confluence of kinetic forces caused the things to go flying off, even as their joints and limbs broke. When it landed on the ground, she slammed a final Animakinetic fist into its face, broke its mandibles, and left it gasping for air.

Hmm, maybe she should have crushed its throat instead? After a moment’s thought, she did so and left the thing rattling for breath.

In the meantime, Virgil’s attacks massacred hundreds of warrior ants. After five minutes of slaughter, the tide dried up and the other variant was nowhere to be seen.

With a huff, Yuriko glanced at her Da, who strolled calmly towards her.

“Are you alright?” she asked, knowing that his Animus reserves must be low.

“Hmm, yes. Though I need a few minutes to meditate.”

“Sure,” Yuriko agreed, and the two of them found a relatively clean corner and sat down. Even with her Animus expenditure, her regeneration runescript weaving was already hard at work refilling her reserves. She’d be back to full in a few minutes.

In the meantime, she observed Virgil in a seated meditation pose, drawing in the ambient Chaos within the air into his lungs. Chaos Sight revealed that he poked the ambient Chaos into his Ennoia lattice. He hadn’t disclosed the exact Ennoia he had, but it was related to the Winds, too. Not quite like Heron’s, which was a broad Ennoia, encompassing many aspects, or hers, which was the entire concept of Radiant light and energy. It felt a bit more pointed and specific.

Anyway, the ambient Chaos melded into his Ennoia lattice, converted into the Ennoia energy, and from there, he converted it into Animus.

Yuriko couldn’t help but snort a laugh. It was the exact same technique she used to turn Radiant energy into Animus. She was also sure that he had touched on the Ennoia for a shorter time than she had, except he was already able to do this? Well, he was her Da, and her talent had to come from somewhere.

Actually, he was doing that faster and more efficiently than she did!

It didn’t take more than five minutes before his reserves were full, and when he opened his eyes with a smile, Yuriko immediately asked him. “How were you able to convert your Ennoia energies into Animus so easily?”

“The controlling winds?” Virgil raised an eyebrow. “Ah, you mean the transformation? I’m afraid it comes naturally to Knight-Captains,” he shrugged. “You know how to transform your Radiant energy into Animus?”

“Yes, I only figured it out a while ago.”

He nodded. “That’s amazing, you being able to do it by yourself. I’m afraid the ability I have is simply the result of being a Knight Captain on the Imperial Path, much like the ability to impart Will into Animus constructs was something I naturally learned when I advanced to Knight-Commander.”

“That’s cheating!” Yuriko protested and Virgil laughed uproariously.

“It is simply the strength of the path the Empress set us on. Now come on, we still have pests to exterminate.”

Yuriko huffed, but he was right. And more than ever, she wanted to test if her improvements allowed her to match and overcome the Femorant Queen. She couldn’t wait.