‘Baby, you didn’t tell me you advanced!’ Mum pouted as she spoke. Both of them had entered Eli’Theria’s core and Sadeen piped up as soon as the hatch closed. ‘Hie hie! Knight Captain at seventeen! I knew you had it in you!’

‘Er, I just advanced, Mum,’ Yuriko responded as she stretched her Anima to link up with Eli’Theria’s Vasi-level body. The amplification she expected had not happened. Instead, she could stretch her Anima to almost a longstride for a total of fivefold rather than tenfold. However, she couldn’t really test that since they were still within the Silver Tiger’s hangar. Instead, she began to conjure her sunblades. ‘Besides, I'm not on the Imperial Path so calling me a Knight Captain is, well, duplicitous at best.’

‘Nonsense. You’re of the Empire and even if you don’t follow the old path, we can still use the designations,’ Mum said. ‘Better than being designated as an outsider anyway, then you don’t get any of the benefits. You know what Virgil’s stipend is like a week, right?’

‘A thousand Sovies a week,’ Yuriko answered.

‘You’re entitled to the same. That covers most of your living expenses even more than your Knight’s stipend.’

‘I haven’t really noticed,’ Yuriko said glumly. She hadn’t visited the Imperial Bank all year. Even after she returned from Irvalla. ‘Uhm, does it accumulate during my absence?’

‘Of course, my dear. You’ll probably have nearly ten thousand Sovies in your account by now. The stipend will be paid to you no matter what, as long as you remain a citizen in good standing. And even if you take up another occupation, your stipend remains. I’ll send the registration for your new Anima strength after we finish off the Chaos Duke.’

Yuriko grinned at Mum’s confidence, though she honestly didn’t have the same amount in her. Her earlier fight against the Duke’s minor incarnation had been harrowing enough, and that was while the man had a limited pool of power. Now that they would face his full might…there was no way she would underestimate him.

She dwelt briefly on the conversation between the three Knights Domini. It was short and to the point, almost as though they were communicating in code where each sound, each grunt, contained multiple words and meanings. However, the simplest interpretation was that they would dive into the pit the pillars created when they struck the Veil and that they would pummel the Chaos Duke to bits as soon as they reached him. Iola Brygos’ words were sharp, too.

“Find him. End him. Nothing else.”

“Agreed,” Jiro Segawa said and Mum replied the same. Then, they split up and got into their varied battle uniforms.

The Silver Tiger moved back to Western Rumiga with the Green Swan following behind. While Yuriko and Sadeen primed the Vasi Colossus, she noticed Heron, Desire, and Gwendith enter the hangar. She beckoned them over and they moved to one of the benches. Yuriko could practically see her Mum’s ears stretching to eavesdrop, though when she turned her head, Sadeen was back to looking at Eli’Theria. Yup, Mum forgot that she could see things behind her back, heh.

“Master, take care,” Desire said while wringing her hands. “The…the duke is more dangerous than you think.”

“I know,” Yuriko answered simply.

“No, you don’t,” Desire muttered rebelliously, “I should be at your side.”

Yuriko shook her head. “I shouldn’t even be fighting him directly, but Mum needs Eli’Theria, and she can’t pilot the Colossus properly without me. You,” She looked at Heron and Gwendith, too, “All of you…I can not let you sacrifice yourself needlessly.”

Heron grunted. “I will if you ask, but even I know I would be more than useless in that fight. We’ll fight the forces we can here.” He glanced nervously towards the porthole and at the cracking skies. “For all our sakes, please win.”

“Thank you, Heron, and we will,” Yuriko said firmly, then asked, “Your family?”

“Mom and sis are here. Along with the Zorins, and the Pikes. I think your little brother got picked up, too. Your older brother and his fiance as well,” Heron answered.

Gwendith piped up. “We’ll do what we can. You do what you can.” Then, the shorter woman stepped up to her and enfolded her with a tight embrace. She kissed Yuriko’s cheek, and murmured, “For luck.”

Smiling briefly, Yuriko grunted when Desire joined the embrace and blubbered against her collar. Heron fidgeted but held himself back, at least until Yuriko pulled him into the hug, too. “Take care. Victory,” he murmured.

“You’re not going to give me a kiss for luck?” Yuriko giggled impulsively, and he reddened for a moment. But then he bowed, took her hand and pressed his lips at the back of her hand.

“For luck.” He smirked.

Desire pressed up against Yuriko’s other side then kissed her neck, just below the ear, which made her twitch from being ticklish. The Chaos Lord giggled, then stepped back, bowing low. “Return to us safe, Master.”

With those goodbyes, Yuriko returned to Eli’Theria, ignoring her Mum’s smirk and half-hidden wink. Then, they boarded and that was when Mum grumbled about her advancement and keeping it secret from her parents. It wasn’t as if she had the time or wherewithal to speak about it. Not when the plane was threatened and close to falling.

“Begin.’ Sadeen said as the hatch opened. Yuriko’s Anima spread out, covering the entirety of the Silver Tiger and the Green Swan, as well as a good bit of the battlefield. As she expected, the Chaos dwellers had split their numbers between the two pillars. The southern one was being besieged by the other Chaos ships, while the northern one was under attack by the Tiger and the Swan. Tiger cubs launched from the hull and were already skirmishing with the squidships.

Here being Rumiga instead of the Chaos Sea meant that only a select few enemies were able to fly. The cubs were equipped with the same Animatech that allowed flying shuttles to hover but had additional equipment to allow them to fly higher than a dozen paces. The squidships were clumsier in the planar air than the Chaos Sea, as if they spent the majority of their attention on staying aloft.

Hmmm, that was probably it. Yuriko remembered how the squidships looked like in battle back then. Their tentacles floated around them freely, while now, they drooped.

There were a dozen squidships flying above the pit, each one crewed with fifty or so nameless.

No…

Yuriko quickly realised that not all were nameless. A few were barons, and at least one was a viscount. They fought against the cubs easily, considering that the Animatech was piloted by Journeymen or lower. Knights could fight on their own, after all. And it wasn’t as if the Tiger had any Colossi.

The Green Swan did, however, and they deployed a five Colossi squad against the fleet. They landed heavily on the mountainside, though they were geared for high-altitude manoeuvres. They stabilised themselves then began shooting long-range Plasma Casters and mini-carronades. They rushed to the boundary, made their stand there and attacked the fleet.

Eli’Theria launched out of the hangar with Yuriko controlling their flight with her Anima. Mum seemingly remained passive, but Yuriko felt her Animus stir. The ambient Chaos around them started to shift as they bent to her Mum’s Will, however, before the Chaos motes could form into mandalas, they suddenly froze. Then they moved so erratically that it was as if they’d gone berserk.

‘Tsk.’ Mum clicked her tongue in annoyance. ‘Already the plane turns against us,’ she hissed.

Yuriko thought that would be it and Mum would do something else. It wasn’t as if Sorcery was all she could do since she still had a Domain centred around the Mishala Mien. And then…Mum did something that Yuriko never expected her to do, or was even capable of doing.

She felt Mum’s Mishala Mien stretch out and reach…for the ambient Chaos around them.

‘Obey me.’

And it did. The ambient Chaos that had been rebelling against Mum’s Sorcery suddenly fell in line as though they were servants. They formed mandalas, of which Yuriko couldn’t make out the individual runescript patterns. Still, after a minute of Shaping, the mandala shot out beams of emerald green. They wrapped around Eli’Theria, then around the floating forms of the two Knights Domini.

Legate Brygos didn’t have any kind of flying technique, but she was wearing a set of artefact wings loaned to her by the Mishala Clan, while the rest of her was covered in crystalline armour. Legate Segawa wore a set of articulated mail covered with enough glowing runescript weaving that it was hard to make out the original colour of the metal. It wasn’t orichalcum, but Yuriko thought that the metal was blue. It reminded her of flowing waves, from the sea, or from a river. She couldn’t decide. It reminded her of torrential rains, and of lightning storms too, although the latter was merely hinted at.

His armour had ribbon-like wings, a dozen of them, waving around behind him. The ribbons spun around and around, and his body bobbed up and down as though he was floating on a lake.

The emerald lights converged around the two of them and momentarily formed a protective bubble, before collapsing in on itself until nothing was left. Another spell formed silvery cords that attached to the two as well as Eli’Theria, and suddenly, Yuriko could feel exactly where they were.

Well, her Anima perception could do that, too, but only if they let it through their Domains. That was certainly up for both of them, though they kept it close to their bodies rather than spread out. Where they touched against each other, momentary sparks flashed.

Sadeen’s third spell created a horde of obsidian cranes. Their magnitude blotted out the rays of the sun and converged upon the squidships. The Chaos dwellers formed their Protective Fields which repulsed the spell, though not without effort.

Many weaker Chaos dwellers couldn’t keep up their defenses and their Fields ruptured catastrophically. A couple of squidships turned to minced meat, and those dwellers that survived the assault fell right into the pit. The tunnel that led deep into the heart of Rumiga was roughly three hundred paces wide, and it seemed to go straight down. However, the light of the sun didn’t penetrate past a couple of paces, even while the sun was reaching its zenith.

The spell did its job of fending the squidships away from the pit, and as soon as it was clear, Eli’Theria and the two Knights Domini charged forth.

The unspoken agreement was for the other two to conserve their strengths, so it was up to Yuriko and her Mum to clear the way. Facing off against a Chaos Duke was no easy thing, and any waste of power, Will, and Intent would be disastrous. As for Mum’s spells, well, one was for additional protection while the other was for a line of communication. The third was simply part of the mandala set, which allowed three such spells to prime and launch.

As they closed towards the pit, Legate Segawa suddenly stopped. ‘A barrier.’ A voice in her head sounded.

‘Then break it,’ Legate Brygos’ voice chimed in.

‘It will deplete Intent and Will,’ Legate Segawa complained.

‘Let me try,’ Yuriko said, which caused the two Domini to turn at Eli’Theria and stare.

‘Can you?’ Mum asked.

‘Sunblades,’ Yuriko answered. ‘Won’t lose much.’

‘Go ahead, we’ll fend off the fleet,’ Legate Segawa groused.

‘No, I’ll do that, too,’ Yuriko said even as she spun the blades into existence. A hundred, two hundred. Then, all the way to five hundred blades materialised around her.

She heard an appreciative mental whistle from the older Legate Segawa, who had probably not witnessed her earlier display.

She sent three hundred careening towards the barrier, but they bounced off without so much as a ripple. The other two hundred she let loose upon the Chaos dwellers, allowing her Ennoia of Radiant Flying Swords to handle the minute details.

In the meantime, she turned a dozen into Trinity blades and used those to strike. The resulting explosion of Devouring energy punched a hole into the darkness just wide enough to accommodate all four of them. And just like that, they were through.

As the darkness within covered them, Yuriko glanced back to the sight of the squipships and nameless being torn to bits.