Chapter 294: Book 5-8.1: What Lies Beneath

The next thing Yuriko knew was that the wall she had been leaning on suddenly blew inwards. Splinters slammed into her skin, some pierced while most of the others bounced off. Even the ones that penetrated were literally only skin deep, as her condensed Anima lay just under it.

As easy as breathing, and just as subconsciously, her Anima flexed and expelled the wood. But that was but the start of the problem. A ferocious wind, Chaos flows, tore into the Ebon Horizon’s side. It widened the breach in the hull and dragged out the fragments as the pressure suddenly reversed.

“Not again!” Yuriko yelped as she was swept off her feet.

Her Anima flared and anchored on the hull, preventing her from being flung away. Then, a body, one of the sailors, smashed into her. The boy’s face was a mask of fear, and in the next moment, his eyes rolled up and he fainted. A sure death sentence in the Chaos.

At that moment, Yuriko had a choice. Her thoughts whirled and everything slowed to a crawl, hinging on a decision. Without a shred of hesitation, she grabbed the boy, enveloping her Anima around him even as the Chaos battered at her.

That fleeting moment in time passed and both of them were swept away.

Her eyes watered as cracks formed in her Anima, faster than they ever did in Kogasi plane, and certainly faster than whatever she could manage inside the Ebon Horizon. Distilled Chaos seeped from Fri’Avgi, and the motes swept into the cracks, healing them bit by bit. The cloud of Chaos motes was greater than Yuriko expected, and the volume barely kept pace with the forming cracks.

‘How much can the artefact hold?’ she wondered. But even as the thought crossed her mind, Primordial Chaos seeped into her Anima, drawn in by the Anima Telum, and were slowly distilled. But the rate of that was much slower than the amount spent. She wouldn’t last long.

The Chaos flows dominated her sight. The colours were so bright that she could see nothing more than a pace from her. The Ebon Horizon had already disappeared from view. She flared her Anima, pushing it out of her body, before she condensed it around herself and the boy.

The colours were all flowing around her, all in one direction.

“Chaos Storm?” she gasped.

No. Focus on your Anima!

‘Damien!’

Release some of the Radiant energy into your Anima. Hurry, I can’t speak long!

Wincing, Yuriko complied. Her reserves hadn’t been full to begin with, and Damien’s words drained the much-needed motes. But without his counsel, she wouldn’t have known what to do.

Channelling the Radiant energy was as easy as thought, a far cry from how difficult it was at the beginning. The energy gathered around the seeping Primordial Chaos and…

A flare of light so bright it blinded her mental vision. On the physical realm, her Anima’s golden light brightened just as much and Radiant energy filled her reserve to the brim.

Now! Channel it into your heart!

Grasping blindly, Yuriko did as asked. Radiant energy smashed into the Primordial Chaos, and was changed, burned, purified, or who knew what it did, into more Radiant energy. Far more than she could contain. It spilt into her Anima, focused at the spot where her heart was. It filled it to the brim, then sought out other points in her Anima, always finding a low point to fill.

Heat. Searing, mind-numbing heat. And pain. Pain that drowned out all thought and sensation. Pain that should have made her unconscious. But she couldn’t. She was forced to feel everything. Feel the Radiant burn her nerves, her muscles, and her blood. She felt it drive into her bones, inside them and sear into the marrow. Her mouth opened to scream, but the Chaos swallowed any sound.

She barely had enough consciousness to realise that they were being driven deeper into the Chaos Sea, and the pressure pushed her Anima down. Bare skin would have cracked and disintegrated, corroded into little motes of Chaos. But her Anima resisted the pressure. It cracked and healed, and grew stronger.

Radiant energy filled her and she could feel them form small runescript words. Damien’s hand. She couldn’t understand what he wrote, and some part of her should have been alarmed. Someone else had again taken control of her body and Anima! But another part of her, the core of herself, knew. Damien wouldn’t harm her.

She felt her back slam into something, felt herself pierce through whatever it was, and the next thing she knew, the corrosive flows vanished.

She must have blacked out but maybe only for a moment. The boy she’d kept safe lay on top of her and her back was against something hard. She couldn’t see anything; her eyes were still filled with sparkles of light. She blinked and blinked until her vision focused enough to realise that she was in someplace dark.

“A Waypoint?” she muttered.

The boy was still unconscious, so she pushed him off her, rolling him onto his back. A closer look revealed that it was that cadet officer, Tiernan, who had given her a tour of the Ebon Horizon.

Shaking her head, she stood. Her hakama and dougi were torn at the hem. She still had her sandals, at least. But other than that, the only thing she had on her was her hip satchel, her chipped belt knife, and a Plasma Lancet that was honestly worse than useless. There was a canister of Ambrosia in there, enough to sate her for a couple of weeks, perhaps. Her satchel had a couple of ration bars, as well as a condenser canister, too.

Her sight adjusted to the low light. The ground was uneven rock and dirt, both an odd grey colour. The skies were covered with clouds, thick billowing black. The air felt dry, but it was a strange lukewarm temperature, as though bathwater had gone tepid.

As far as her eyes could see, there was nothing in this place but grey rock, sand, and dirt. No trees, shrubs, or bushes. She couldn’t hear anything. Not even her breathing or her heartbeat. Eyes widening, Yuriko dropped to her knees and grabbed Tiernan’s wrist. Her fingers felt for a pulse, though she could see his chest rising and falling. It paid to make sure!

“Alive.” She sighed when she felt his pulse. It was slow, and his skin was clammy. Eh? It started heating up.

“M…Miss Davar?” Tiernan muttered as his eyes snapped open and locked into her gaze. “I…what…?”

Yuriko patted his shoulder. “We got swept out of the Horizon.”

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“Eh!” He sat bolt upright, his head swivelling in panic. “No, no, no!”

“Calm down,” she said as she pressed down on his shoulder and prevented him from getting to his feet. “We’re in no immediate danger, I think.” She added doubtfully. Er, maybe she shouldn’t have said that.

Tiernan’s eyes widened in more panic, and his mouth worked wordlessly. After a while, he managed another word, “Why do you sound like that?”

Yuriko frowned. She hadn’t noticed it earlier, but now that he pointed it out, his voice and hers had an odd echoing quality to it. As though they were talking through a long narrow tunnel.

“I don’t know,” she said before she sighed and stood back up. She surveyed the area, channelling Enhanced Sight as she did so. Her range expanded by a few hundred paces, but what she saw was much the same.

“We have to get back to the Horizon,” Tiernan said as he got to his feet.

The cadet officer was actually older than Yuriko, probably as old as Riley, though his face had an immature quality to it. She was taller than he was, by a couple of inches. His hair was the same sandy brown as Riley and Aidan’s, and he had broad shoulders.

His eyes wandered around their surroundings before he started to hyperventilate.

“We…we’re in the Chaos, aren’t we? I’m…we’re going to die. Or be changed. No…I’m only an Apprentice, I can’t be here!” His Animus formed a Protective Field, erupting from his skin and shaped into an oblong. But it was too weak. No sooner had his Animus appeared, the very air around them squashed it down. He staggered and fell to his knees, tears dripping down his cheeks and his face was twisted into despair.

Yuriko flared her Anima to life. It expanded and expanded until it reached thirty-one inches from her skin. The fire enveloped Tiernan and pushed away the grey air.

He looked up at her, eyes swimming. “You…you’re a Knight?”

“I suppose,” Yuriko answered. “My Ani…Protective Field should keep us safe from corruption.” She winced when a crack formed right as she spoke. “But I’ll need to meditate to recover. Keeping both of us alive while we were flung from the Horizon took something out of me.”

“Yes, yes. Please.” Tiernan nodded and moved to stand, but stopped when he came to the boundary of her fire. “Er…”

“Just stay within the glow,” Yuriko instructed.

At thirty-one inches, her Anima easily covered both of them, but he’d have to sit uncomfortably close to her. Yuriko took a seated meditation pose and pointedly looked at him. He hesitated before moving behind her to sit back to back. He kept a measured distance from her, about a couple of inches, and kept his gaze away. She could sense his movements, even the minor shifting of his feet and hands.

It was…odd. It was as if she was looking directly at him even though her eyes were pointed somewhere else. It also felt as if she touched him with her hands. She could feel some sensation through her Anima now. She could feel the grittiness of the rock, and how it was one solid slab beneath a thin layer of dust and ash. The material rejected her Anima after an inch or so.

Thus, it felt as if she was running her hands all over Tiernan’s body.

With a shiver, she wrenched her attention away from him and focused inwards. Despite his chubby cheeks, he had firm muscles on his arms and chest.

Colouring faintly, Yuriko envisioned her Anima. What happened to her? And more to the point, how did they get flung from the Ebon Horizon? She wasn’t in her room then. She had gone out into the hallway towards the lavatory, feeling quite a bit jittery. The shaking and rocking of the ship had made her somewhat nauseated. She had been on her way back to her quarters when all that happened.

Well, that was more intense than I expected.

‘Damien!’ Yuriko thought with relief, ‘but aren’t you wasting Radiant?’

There’s enough to last you for a while. But listen now. Whatever you do, don’t…

Something in the air pressed down on her Anima and squashed it down to her skin. Tiernan cried out in fear, collapsing against her back. Yuriko felt as if a heavy weight, thousands of MiJin, pressed down on her, and she could barely move. She couldn’t breathe! The force sought to press her to the ground, squashing her like a bug.

‘I will not bow!’ she thought furiously. She pushed with her mind, with the entirety of her being, and bit by bit, her Anima flared, struggling against the pressure. A timeless instant, where everything stood still, then it was gone.

Her Anima flared to full extension and beyond, pulling out by another couple of inches, though the excess felt strained and thin. It settled back down after a couple of moments.

Sweat soaked her brow and dripped down her chin. Damien--?

No answer. ‘Damien!’

Still nothing. She still had Radiant energy in her, so he should be able to speak. But…maybe he couldn't.

She shouldn’t do what? What was it he wanted to say? What was his warning about? And worst of all, what was that? There was nothing around them but the desolate landscape, the grey air and ash, and the overcast skies. What had pressed down on her?

Was it the Waypoint itself? An odd rule that prevented her Ancestor from speaking? Yuriko swallowed nervously. She wanted to find answers, but at the same time, she was afraid of knowing them. What now?

“Tiernan.” The cadet officer was still leaning against her back, and from her Anima, she knew he had fainted again. He was still breathing though, so he should be fine. Well, she needed to take stock of herself. And maybe calm her racing heart. It was no use to panic. Not when there was no immediate need to run. Or fight.

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