From above the plains and hills, Yuriko and Eli’Theria couldn’t help but gape at the ongoing battle. The village at the foot of the mountain, Misttyre, had its Protective Dome up. Even so, it wasn’t being attacked by anyone. The village after that was surrounded by barbarians and Federation troops. The dome was almost gone, and there was fighting going on at the battlements.

South of that village was another battlefield entirely. A horde of yellowish creatures surrounded two powerful warriors. Their Animus lights flared and practically overshadowed everything else. And with the coming dusk, theirs was the brightest lights across the land.

If she squinted, she could just make out the next couple of villages, as well as the mountain wall at Rumiga’s edge. Rumiga City…was gone. The only thing she could see was the mountain.

Farther south, she saw another detachment of Federation troops. They were dissimilar to the Haveenians and she suspected that they were Ivalans. Their uniform and armour were dissimilar enough to the Haveenians and Kadracki that they were readily apparent even from leagues away. There was also a set of Steam Cannons mounted on some kind of metal carriage…

Actually, they looked similar to the tanks from Irvalla.

And there was a monstrosity of a Colossus just behind the Steam Tank. Yuriko frowned at the sight. The frame was definitely a Colossus’, but that was where the similarity ended. That it was made of metal meant that it had been an Evgenis Colossus before it got…gutted. Brass tubes, large cylindrical contraptions, a smoke stack, and a furnace were what was inside the torso. It also glimmered with Animus, and it was a Spirit Binder’s relic, she assumed.

Anger welled up within her and suffused her mind. It steadily grew worse, and it was only when Eli’Theria took a step downhill did Yuriko realise that it was the Colossus’ anger she felt, and was magnified by her own. Whatever animating spirit lived within the butchered Colossus had been subsumed or enslaved by the Spirit Binder.

The Steam Colossus had several tubes sticking out of its shoulders, and every now and then, plumes of yellow flame burst out of the muzzle. Along with the Steam Tank’s attack, the area where the yellow crystalline creatures were struck by explosive shells. It was the creatures that were being struck, and though some shattered with a direct hit, most easily weathered through the bombardment. Except, the warriors they surrounded were given a reprieve.

‘Whatever the Steam cannons are firing at are my allies,’ Yuriko decided. But she didn’t move to aid the yellow crystalline constructs. Instead, she pushed off towards Milford. The air pushed back against their speed. She felt a shock wave form behind Eli’Theria and sensed an explosive release through her Anima. They ate up the intervening leagues and were within striking distance of the walls in a couple of minutes. Sunblades formed around Eli’Theria as she dove into the fray.

Blades that carved barbarians to bits. Arclights drove Ivalans into cover, and even those were easily cut to bits. She slaughtered hundreds while the Colossus hovered above the battlefield, with her arms crossed. A pose that was arrogant, meant to taunt the armies’ champions to come forth. And they did.

Heavily armoured men and women from the Ivalans surged forward, their bodies flushed with Animus. They threw themselves bodily at the sunblades, and while a few were gravely wounded, most managed to neutralise the Radiant energy constructs by sacrificing their own Animus and armour to deplete the blade’s reserves.

Another contingent sent Animus arclight blades her way, which she simply deflected with her Animakinesis. The few she allowed to pass bounced off Eli’Theria’s armour plates. The barbarians clumped together and Yuriko was startled when their Geist shadows rammed into each other and merged. This was followed by the barbarian bodies doing the same thing, and soon enough, they turned into a Colossus-sized, bipedal humanoid. About five paces high, and covered in thick hide and bony spikes along the elbows, fists, and feet. The amalgamated Geists slid over the monstrous humanoid and imparted the combined attributes of each one into the body. Its skin turned steel grey, it grew antlers with twenty-four points, its legs extending and turned digitigrade…

It wasn’t the only one to do so. Several clumps of barbarians did the same thing. The horrific amalgamations differed from each other, with some growing incredibly muscular, while others remained lanky. Some even had asymmetrical features, including one grotesque specimen that had a super bulky upper body while its legs remained long and agile. When it took a step, it almost broke its ankles though.

More importantly, because so many of them were amalgamating, Yuriko noticed a single point of sameness. It was a small grey heart attached to the back of each Geist’s neck. The illusory Geists had the same feature, even if the beast they drew the Geist from didn’t technically have a neck… It was small, too, barely the size of a child’s fist. It was only when so many of them appeared that she noticed…

Shaking herself out of her stupor, Yuriko sent sunblades towards the nearest amalgam. The beast made no effort to dodge or block and instead charged through the attack. She was hovering a dozen paces above the battlefield, and in a single bound, the amalgam managed to reach her height. She didn’t let Eli’Theria get touched, however, and she used her Animakinesis to knock the amalgam off course. The sunblades had sunk into their flesh but to little effect.

Yes, it went in. The muscle and skin started to burn and melt. But there was so much mass within the creature that a single sunblade was the equivalent of a needle, albeit a burning hot one, to them. They also didn’t seem to feel pain.

Orichalcum blades formed over Eli’Theria’s wrist guards. They weren’t as long as the ones she deployed while piloting with Mum, but they should be long enough to cut an amalgam’s head off.

She spun as she struck, using the circular movement to increase force and chopped right through an amalgam’s hastily raised arm. But that wasn’t the problem. There were hundreds more of them now, and they were all heading towards her.

“Tsk.”

Yuriko boosted away from Milford, drawing the barbarian amalgams away from the beleaguered wall. The Ivalans were peeking out of their cover and were starting to regroup. The other barbarians pulled back, and each team had begun the amalgamation process. To her count, it took at least twenty bodies to form an amalgam, but there were thousands of the brutes here.

Eli’Theria danced back, swiping at the amalgams that came close. In the meantime, Yuriko sent sunblades to strike at the necks, and she succeeded in beheading one soon after. Except…

The amalgam didn’t die, or even fall down. Instead, eyes grew beneath the severed stump of their necks and the beast continued to hound her. Cursing, Yuriko sent even more sunblades to the wounded creature, mincing its torso in the process. Only when its ribs were exposed, and probably half of its vital organs had been burnt to charcoal did the amalgam fall.

The once she chopped up with the orichalcum blades still retained most of their fighting prowess. Chop off a hand and they would use their forearms to attack. None of the barbarians used Animus to launch any kind of attack, but their physiques were incredibly robust. She had to resort to chopping their legs off, and even though the beasts crawled after her, their speed was curtailed. At least until they picked up the severed limbs and stuck them back to their stumps. They didn’t bother looking for their original limbs either, and one amalgam had stuck an arm on one leg, and a head on the other. The severed head didn’t look conscious, thank the Ancestors, otherwise, Yuriko wouldn’t have known what to do or how to react. These rotters were worse than the Chaos fleet outside of Rumiga!

At least the Marchionesses brought back their troops in their original form and not these swarm fodder abominations!

She fought and drew them away. Orichalcum blades were remarkably efficient in conducting Radiant energy, and the trick to preventing amalgam regeneration or reconstitution was to heavily cauterize the wounds. Three or four sunblades a piece was enough to kill, but she only had sixty. It was already a step up from using sunshards, and the little shards didn’t contain enough Radiant energy to kill the beasts off quickly.

Twilight came and darkened the land. The fighting was still white hot, and Yuriko found herself subconsciously heading towards the crystalline army. The bombardment from the Ivalans continued, but those warriors looked like they were made entirely of crystal and not just armoured by it.

She recalled that the Agminis Legate’s speciality was just that: yellow crystals. So the Legate, the person she had to find and bring back to the Watchtower was in the midst of that battle.

Hours had passed and she killed or disabled about fifty amalgams. There were a couple of hundred more, and worse, half of them had turned towards the village. Even just one of them was tall enough to reach over the walls.

In short order, Milford had been breached and the fighting had spilled over inside. An hour earlier, Yuriko had attempted to use a Radiant Lance, but that only seemed to madden the beasts. They rushed her and fought without the slightest regard for their own safety, but the ones who were farther back turned away and scattered instead. It was how she lost their attention and why they were attacking Milford again. If not for reinforcements from Misttyre, which arrived just half an hour back, the village would have been turned to rubble already.

The Radiant Lance did kill about three of the beasts, but their sturdy flesh absorbed Radiant energy so well that they were effective body shields for the rest.

So half a minute of casting Radiant Lance only killed three, and in the meantime, it drained her Will. She could only cast a few Radiant Lances before being completely spent.

As for using the Trinity…that devastating strike took up even more of her Will to use, and the barbarian amalgams struck by it exploded to smithereens, taking a couple of other amalgams with them. Not a very fruitful trade-off. She could just keep making sunblades and kill them using that, and she could form a hundred blades for the same mental effort it took to cast Radiant Lance or Shape a Trinity. Those things were better used against truly powerful foes and not rabble like this.

She briefly wondered when she started considering Colossus-sized barbarians to be merely rabble…

She glanced at the warriors the presumed Legate was fighting and noted that they were somewhat worn down. Still very much alive and capable of fighting, however. They were also clearly Federation as their Animus displays showed their Bound Spirits hovering next to them.

She turned her attention back to the amalgams and shot another trio of sunblades. Her Animus constructs barely lasted a couple of beasts before their energies were spent so she had to keep conjuring them up. And half the time, the amalgams had enough animal cunning to retreat and recover before they were slain. Even with cauterised stumps, all they had to do was cut off the burnt parts and replace them with other limbs. That or a reserve force of barbarians would join the amalgamation.

She dashed towards a wounded group, taking the chance to end them before they could retreat. She killed one before the rest escaped and a fresh batch jumped her.

Yuriko and Eli'Theria retreated and struck another group before they got swamped. The crystal constructs turned towards the amalgams and started attacking too, and unlike her initial results, their crystal spears penetrated the amalgam's thick hide easily, then shredded it from the inside with little trouble.

A moment later, something landed on Eli'Theria's shoulder and touched the side of the Colossus' head.

"I'm assuming you're a friend. So why are you here?" came the Legate's hard voice, much to Yuriko's relief.

No, she didn't actually know Iola Brygos, but Eli'Theria verified that the one speaking controlled a Domain. Who else on the battlefield had such capabilities?