You need to eliminate all of his incarnations. Damien said while the Weaver kept his distance.

The Oathsworn continued to attack her while she absently repulsed his efforts. Not that she wasn’t paying attention to him. She wasn’t that foolish. Instead, she only devoted half of her consciousness threads to the fight, which was more than enough focus, while the rest of her mind thought of many different things.

‘Are incarnations all that common?’ Yuriko asked.

At Manifestation stage you can create incarnations easily. Or rather, the ability to create incarnations is needed to even reach that stage. A sliver of understanding is enough, no need to actually split your Will and Intent at Transformation. You’re quite close to the next stage already. Your Radiant Anima Refinement has already surpassed 50%.

‘Already?’ Yuriko gasped. ‘But I only started that a few days ago.’

You’ve been refining your Anima from the beginning. Damien said. Partially. Now, all you need is to complete the process. Your Radiant Body Refinement is at 85%. And you have the enlightenment to push it close to 98%.

‘What would it take to reach perfection?’ Yuriko asked.

Contrary to what you expect, perfection isn’t 100%. Damien said ruefully, You’ll turn into a complete energy being and cease being human. Or Ancient, for that matter. No, 98% is as close as you can go, 99% if you want to push it, but that little 1% may take you longer than your current lifetime to achieve, and the effects aren’t all that good, and will completely be irrelevant once you reach True Incarnation Stage.

‘What level is that?’ Yuriko asked curiously as she deflected the Oathsworn’s beard spike with her aura-coated palm. She retaliated by kicking the man away, and the sticky warrior rebounded towards a floating boulder.

The Chaos flows around them constantly materialised landmasses and other features. At the moment, roughly a hundred paces around them was a disc of earth covered with grass. Boulders about three or four times her size floated around them, adding a layer of complexity to the battlefield, one she was a bit annoyed to have to navigate. Unlike the plane, her Anima could not easily grasp the Chaos around her to allow her to levitate or fly. Instead, the Chaos flows reacted to her subconscious Intent and materialised footholds in the form of floating rocks or even solidified air.

Transformation. Manifestation. Dominion. True Incarnation. I remember these now. After the last is ascension to God-Monarch, of which I’ve attained the third stage…that I remember anyway.

Yuriko paused and almost got hit by an axe from her distraction. She leaned back and shot a kinetic blast to knock the Oathsworn’s footing off balance. ‘Can you tell me about the Stages then?’

Hmmm. I guess. I only remember bits and pieces, and I can tell you what makes each one unique to the others, and what makes them powerful. Transformation, you already know. Manifestation allows you to create minor Incarnations, clones and bearers of your Will and Intent. Dominion allows you to create and control a Domain, a zone of total control. And True Incarnation is when you completely embody your Ennoia, which should have stepped at the fifth Hierarchy by then.

Fascinating, Yuriko thought. Still, she was only on the verge of Transformation, and she wondered what kind of World Trials she’d face every transition.

Not until you reach Ascension. Damien said, I remember now. At least, not the kind of World Trial you experienced when reaching for Actualisation.

‘That’s a relief,’ Yuriko answered while she crushed the Oathsworn’s head using an Animakinetic vise. Of course, his link with his nameless allowed him to pass the injury to them, so instead of dying, his head reinflated as though going back in time. It was somewhat gruesome and icky…

Well, that was one life down. How many left? Or could she kill more than one nameless at a time? His links were situated far enough away, maybe a couple of longstrides and protected in the midst of the rest of the navy, for her to target directly. Maybe if she used a spell?

Nodding to herself, she summoned her Implement and began to cast Radiant Lance. The Chaos around her swirled into a vortex, tearing away at the temporary landscape. The pressure around her increased tenfold. Her knees almost buckled, but she bore it until her condensed Anima adjusted.

“You dare use Sorcery here!” The Oathsworn roared as he charged towards her, dodging the bits and pieces that were flung by the Chaos vortex. He flung his battle axes at her, intent on disrupting her cast.

Yuriko deflected the weapons with her kinetic bursts, then flung the half-formed Radiant Lance at him, prompting a yelp of surprise. The unstable mass of energy exploded a couple of paces from the Chaos Viscount and burned through his Protective Field. But the abundance of Chaos worked against the explosion, doing little more than make his beard curl.

“Tsk.” Yuriko clicked her tongue in annoyance while Damien chuckled in her mind.

Sorcery? You should be Free Shaping in the Chaos, child.

‘Oh right. I forgot.’ Yuriko muttered. Still, diverting her focus to Free Shape would probably be unwise. Instead, she spun more sunblades into existence and flung them at the Oathsworn.

She felt her surroundings shift as the Weaver plied his tricks. She still couldn’t adjust to the difference in fighting here. It was markedly different even when she fought in the dreamscape. The Oathsworn’s attacks didn't just include weapon strikes and energy blasts but also included shaping the environment.

When he struck, the ground she was standing on shifted and shook, attempting to unbalance her. Unfortunately for him, her Animakineses mostly countered his little tricks. Even in defence, he used the Chaos to push and pull at his body. So maybe she should do the same as he did?

But trying to Shape Chaos to her favour while fighting wasn’t easy at all. It took way too many streams of consciousness to do so, and she’d lose control of her sunshards and sunblades in the process, not to mention the focus she used to actually fight. The most basic application was easier though, simply solidifying the area around her into a space she could actually manoeuvre and fight in, only taking as much focus as controlling a dozen sunshards.

Oathsworn yelled curses at her as he kept his distance, which proved a mistake since her sunshards could effectively harry him. Each shard struck at his armour, and the tough bristles of his beard, burned a bit, then got deflected off. Fri’Avgi in hand, Yuriko decided that she should probably feed him to her hungry artefact. Maybe that would be more efficient than what she was doing.

She pursued, but this time he kept his distance. He flung arclights from his axes, shot cones of orange flame, or kicked clumps of hastily formed rocks. Most of the attacks she deflected using kinetic bursts angled to push them away from her. For the rocks, she matched the force they exerted to stop them cold, then kicked them back at him when she closed. He was remarkably spry, but she really shouldn’t equate an opponent’s agility based on how they looked, especially not a Chaos Lord.

She was just a smidgen faster than he was. Even though she’d killed her fair share of viscount-level threats, each of those battles had not been easy. Well, now they are. Still, fighting in the Chaos Sea, where they had the advantage, just negated a bit of her prowess.

‘Get him! Feed me!’ Fri’Avgi yelled excitedly.

‘Alright, alright.’ Yuriko chuckled. ‘Get ready.’

She paused for a short moment as she gathered all of her Animakinetic potential, then used it to propel herself towards him by pushing against the solidified Chaos she stood on. The earthly disc shattered as her force exceeded its tolerance, and she practically shattered the Chaos’ resistance to her speed.

The Oathsworn’s eye widened in surprise, but he managed to cross his axes in an attempted block. Fri’Avgi, her blade surrounded by jagged Animus, slammed into the greenish metal, deflected downwards while simultaneously pushing the things up and over, and went straight into the Chaos Viscount’s beard. The greasy hair suddenly went aglow, and inexplicably, nearly stopped the weapon cold.

Yuriko growled and channelled a prodigious amount of Radiant energy into her artefact, which made Fri’Avgi burst aflame and fracture into its sevenfold Ignition stage form. The six floating blades went around the Oathsworn’s block and stabbed him in the back and sides. Then, the blades snapped back into their normal form, except this time, they were impaled into the creature’s torso.

Strands of hair floated around him as Fri’Avgi greedily devoured his Essence. He gasped and shuddered, reaching towards her with his nerveless hands. The battleaxes dropped and he clutched at the blade.

Yuriko could feel distilled Chaos filling the artefact’s reserves as the Chaos Lord’s form withered. But before she could celebrate, there was a shifting of the Chaos around her, and the next moment, the Oathsworn’s desiccated body disappeared from Fri’Avgi’s blade and reappeared a few dozen paces away. Almost at once, his body was refilled with vitality, though there was a haunted look behind his eyes. The Weaver, who was behind the translocation, cheekily waved at her.

“Rotter,” Yuriko muttered.

She was just about to chase after them when a squidship careened into their battlefield, smashed the remnants of the earthen disc, and sent beams of inky darkness at her. At the same time, the battle axes the Oathsworn left on the ground jumped up and tried to chop her up.

Her Anima condensed into layers as she deflected the axes and blocked the inky beams. The squidship’s attack clung unnaturally to her Anima and left a stinging sensation. Then, the beast slammed its giant tentacles at her, which she promptly cut off with a careless swipe of her greatsword. The creature-vessel screeched in pain and anger, but it was cut short when she slammed several dozen sunshards into its open maw and pulped it from the inside.

The nameless Chaos Lords mounted on the squidship blasted her with solidified Chaos shards in an attempt to distract her from the stricken beast. Letting those things strike her Anima while she was inside a plane wasn’t a problem, but here, the projectiles infused more and more Chaos as they flew through the Chaos Sea, growing stronger and more threatening with each inch they crossed.

Yuriko unleashed Radiant energy beams from her fingers and eyes to intercept, which either melted the Chaos bolts or exploded them. Thick clouds of corrosive smoke drifted towards her as a result, and she had to dodge out of the way. She wasn’t wearing Light Infantry Armour or her piloting suit, but rather, her traveller’s gear. Well, she didn’t own a set of the Infantry Armour anyway, and she didn’t want to damage the suit. While it would self-repair while hidden within her Anima, she didn’t know how long that would take.

The cloud of corrosive smoke expanded faster than she expected and she was soon occluded within. She kept it from touching her body with her condensed Anima, but it was also affected. Cracks and abrasions formed on the surface of her Anima, which she used Radiant Anima Refinement on, to heal and to advance her progress.

Still, staying within wasn’t a good idea, so she propelled herself away. It took longer than she expected, and by the time the Chaos smoke disappeared, there was no sign of the Chaos Viscounts. The squidship was beating a hasty retreat and was more than a longstride away already.

Snorting to herself, Yuriko took her bearings and realised that she had drifted quite far from the battlefield. Maybe a Waypoint away? She could feel the disturbance in the distance, but the Planar Suppression Formation wasn’t within sight. She could feel where Eli’Theria was though, so she could easily return to the Colossus. Or call her over, if needed.

“Was I so distracted that I wound up this far?” Yuriko muttered. She was sure that she’d only stepped out of the Planar Suppression zone for less than an hour. How did she end up nearly a day away?

Well, nothing for it but to return.

Just as she took a step forward, the Chaos around her shimmered. She felt herself being pulled into a Fysalli, and she resisted by reflex. But a moment later, she stopped and let herself sink inside. When she blinked, she saw herself in a modest bower of trees with a figure on her knees before her. The woman’s head was covered in golden flames, and when she looked up, her sapphire eyes twinkled in suppressed glee.

“Master,” The Wielder of Divine Flames said, though Yuriko suddenly felt that the sobriquet had changed, “I bring news.”

“Firehe…er, Wielder…” Yuriko started to say, but the Chaos Lord shook her head.

“I am now the Devotee of Radiant Fire.” The woman smirked, “I am yours.”

Yuriko’s eyes twitched. Was this what happened when she beat up Chaos Lords but used her Mien on them instead of killing them? But she only sighed, “So be it.”