Yuriko followed the road towards the Imperial Pass, flying just a couple of dozen paces above it. The village nearest Faron’s Crossing, Sonza, lay abandoned. Most of the residents probably moved to Faron’s Crossing over the past year, and while few of the houses had been burned, most only showed signs of looting. It was easy enough to distinguish who looted which house as she doubted the militia would be riding land raptors, or would bother to destroy the buildings.

The next village on the road, Alta, was the same. But the one after that, Derrington, was fortified by the villagers. A Protective Dome flickered on and off as she came close. The sentries eyed her warily, but she skirted around the village walls and simply continued on her way. Eli’Theria didn’t have Imperial markings so their caution was warranted. She wondered how they were doing for food, but noticed that the surrounding countryside wasn’t despoiled.

She spooked a herd of goats as she flew overhead, with the herder boy waving his stick at her angrily. Nothing she could do about it since she didn’t notice the herd until she flew over the hill. Nirham, the next village over, was similarly defended, though they didn’t have a Protective Dome active. Yuriko skirted around the village, not bothering to come too close. The last village on the route, Horswick, had changed from when she arrived with the Frozen Camp regiment.

For one thing, it, too, was abandoned. But unlike Alta and Sonza, the buildings were buried in so much mud and earth that Yuriko thought she’d gotten lost for a minute. The road was also gone, and the pass was roughly a hundred paces higher than it should have been.

“Well, Eli, I guess we’re flying up,” Yuriko muttered.

‘I will watch the mountains,’ the animating spirit answered softly.

‘Think we’ll find food?’ Fri’Avgi asked, which probably meant Chaos Lords.

“I hope not,” Yuriko muttered. “‘Cause I don’t like what that would imply.”

The two animating spirits chatted with each other at the speed of thought. Yuriko didn’t bother listening, since the last time she tried, she got a headache, only to find out that the two had been comparing their respective materials… Both were apparently primarily made of the same thing, orichalcum.

They flew towards the pass, what was left of it, anyway. It was still lower than the surrounding mountains but the Commuter Tram wouldn’t be able to cross since there wasn’t a road any longer. She remembered the first, and honestly, the only time she rode the tram. It had taken three days to cross the distance, mainly because she realised the trams didn’t move too quickly. The landcraft she rode in Irvalla were three or so times faster even if they had the unpleasant penchant of running out of fuel.

“Tsk.” Yuriko clicked her tongue at the state of the pass. Landslides along several parts blocked the road, while at other points, it eroded the path to nothing. Much effort by Earthmelders would be needed to repair the pass and who knew how long that would take? The more important point was that now, the connection between two halves of Imperial Rumiga was broken, while the Federation’s connection between each of their city-states was still intact.

She floated over the pass, then tried to rise above the mountain’s peak. However, when Eli’Theria reached the higher areas, Yuriko’s Anima suddenly faltered.

“Eh?!” She gasped as she felt her grip on the planar fabric, and the air around her, loosen. Eli’Theria dropped down several dozen paces and almost crashed on the mountainside… actually, she did crash on the mountain!

Thunk! Scrape!

Eli’Theria’s orichalcum fingers dug into the cliffside and arrested their downward momentum, but they only managed to hang on for a moment, as the next instant, the stones they hung on to abruptly bulged out and struck the Colossus’ chest plate. Yuriko’s Anima found purchase on the rocks and their downward slide slowed as they dug furrows into the mountainside.

With her eyes focused on the bulging rock, she almost didn’t see the jagged shard sprouting from the ground. She moved Eli’Theria’s foot out of the way and avoided getting impaled. She had a thin layer of her condensed aura around the Colossus, augmented by the construct’s runescript weaving, which was enough to stop the attack in its tracks. Honestly, even if she wasn’t piloting Eli’Theria, she felt she could have taken the blow with none the worse for wear. Unfortunately, that earth spike wasn’t the only one.

Dozens of spikes sprouted from the floor, the mountainside, and even from the peaks. Those above were covered with ice and snow, and when they were launched, it broke whatever was holding the snowcap above. An avalanche… Thousands of MiJins of snow, boulders, and dirt careened towards the narrow valley right where the Yuriko and Eli’Theria stood.

She shaped her Anima into a dome, then angled it so that the snow would deflect away from her. When the avalanche hit a couple of seconds later, she stabbed Eli’Theria’s feet and her Anima into the ground in an attempt to stand her ground, only to feet the earth beneath buckling to repel her.

The enormous kinetic force of the snow sent both of them tumbling head over heels down the mountainside. Thankfully, she was inside the Colossus and wasn’t affected beyond her Anima getting a battering.

They were buried in snow a few seconds later, and it was only minutes before she felt themselves settle. She extended her perceptive aura, found out that Eli’Theria was on her side, and the surface was to their left. She shaped her Anima to dig themselves out, finding it much easier than escaping from a cave-in.

“I guess we’re not flying over,” Yuriko muttered angrily. The Avos Zarek was dead so who was controlling the mountain range? It was evidently the duke, but why would he try to prevent her from crossing over? The Gemheart was in the west. The only thing the duke could fear in the east was the Agminis Legate, but that only meant that Iola Brygos was possibly in danger.

“Kato…” she muttered while Eli’Theria marched back down to the Imperial Pass. From history lessons, Yuriko remembered the treaty between the Empire and Zarek. The pass should have been sacrosanct, but perhaps the letter of the law only determined the pass to be the road and nothing much else. That would explain why the duke didn’t just do that stunt closer to the pass.

She shook her head and set Eli’Theria to scramble across the debris. Their size meant that the landslides and blockages were mere annoyances rather than impassable barriers. She kept half her mind on the movement, while the other part of her gnawed with worry. She dipped halfway into the dreamscape, something she couldn’t have done without tutelage from Mum, and peeked at the Threads coming out of her dream body.

She identified Kato’s thread easily enough but hadn’t noticed how tenuous it had become until she took a closer look. When she touched it, she expected to get a sense of where he was, but rather than that, the only thing she could determine was that he was still in Rumiga and that he was alive.

She was able to use her Anima to hover above the pass, but if she flew too high, the mountain inevitably quaked and sent shards and boulders at them. If she stayed hovering for too long, even if she was above the road, the same thing happened. So instead of taking only a few hours to cross the pass, it would probably take more than a day. The route was winding since the mountain range was composed of several layers of individual mountains, with valleys, ridges, ravines, and chasms. The bridges that gapped the chasms had been destroyed, but as long as she aimed to get back to the pass, she could fly over or jump across.

That cut the distance and saved them several hours of going down the sideroads. There were dozens of mining camps near the pass, all covered with the same treaty. She remembered that when she crossed last time, her Commuter Tram had been accosted by grunders. Those parasitic grubs weren’t part of Zarek’s kin, but the stonetoises were. Which was why they had been killed without any repercussions. They had been trespassing.

None of the camps survived Zarek’s death. The ones she could spy from the road looked to have been trampled by dozens of stonetoises, if not buried in rubble.

It was close to dusk by the time Yuriko and Eli’Theria crossed the last mountain, which exposed the lovely view of eastern Imperial Rumiga. Of course, it wasn’t so pretty now, since it was practically covered in warriors and battle.

____________

Iola Brygos’ crystal spear was inches away from Autarch Ivala’s heart. It struck his Spirit Bound armour, and its animating spirit, grown to great power by the Autarch’s Will and Animus, materialised and caught the speartip.

Iola’s Domain, as well as her Reperta energies and Animus, immediately began to shred the spirit’s fingers. But the momentum of the blow had been diverted and the point skidded against the smooth metal, which angled and furrowed to direct the weapon towards the man’s shoulder and away from his head. A moment later, the crystal spear flew up, but Iola was able to adjust it enough to catch on the Autarch’s cheek guard. Sparks flew from the contact point and the metal was torn asunder. Still, the spear missed the bite to his flesh and Iola couldn’t help but curse under her breath.

Her crystal golems took over applying pressure to the Autarch, while she pulled back into their midst to empower another spear. The flow of battle continued for several minutes while she attempted several times to end one of the Grandmaster Binders.

It was annoying, but she should have been able to defeat them already. Unfortunately, they were much stronger than they used to be. The density of their Animus almost rivalled that of an Imperial Knight-Captain. Coupled with their bound spirits’ innate abilities, as well as the fact that there were essentially at least two minds working together inside a Spirit Binder’s body, as long as they focused on tying her down, she was hard-pressed to drive them off.

Still, the Animus density was unusual. Most Animus users used the same density as an Imperial Novice, meaning they don’t condense their Animus at all. Spirit Binders and Geist Users didn’t need dense Animus to advance, but rather, they focused on growing their partners. Now some of those partners, Geist Users, in particular, do condense their Animus as a matter of growth, but Spirit Binders rarely do. It was why they were much weaker against Imperials even if their reserves were larger.

It was a perennial comparison. Imperials have fewer lumens, but each lumen was worth more, while other Animus users had far larger reserves but each one was barely worth more than an Imperial Novice’s. That wasn’t to say that they were always weaker comparatively… it was a generalisation, after all.

The two Spirit Binders managed to get back together, but that only made it simpler for Iola’s crystal golem army to surround them. Granted that they were able to fight back to back, but they also meant that they couldn’t dodge carelessly. There was one attack that Garamus evaded but struck Ivala’s back instead. She wondered if that would cause them to fight, and though Ivala yelled coarsely, their teamwork didn’t falter. Still, it was only a matter of time.

Indeed, the two City-State rulers were accumulating injuries at a slow, yet steady pace. Their uncommon toughness and strength aside, Iola was still superior. She even had the time to watch the other battlefields, and what she saw only made her want to finish them off faster. Milford’s besiegers were already pressing up against the walls, and parts of the Protective Dome were fractured.

Gritting her teeth, Iola readied her latest crystal spear. Autarch Ivala’s armour was thick, but much of the metal was scratched and dented. King Garamus on the other hand, was bleeding all over. But just as she was about to launch her latest attack…

Wheeee! Booom! Booooooom!

It rained fire and thunder.