Chapter 545: Book 8-22.3: Discovery

Ever since Yuriko began to practice the Ender’s Waltz, her control over her sunshards had reached a sublime level. Before, she could manually control the sunshards but her level of finesse was rather low. Now, she could impart a set of instructions that the shards would follow, and in truth, she did that for static defences.

As would be expected though, doing that meant the weapons had a lack of flexibility. As long as they were within her Anima reach though, she could quickly send a new set of instructions, so at least it wasn’t so bad.

Now?

With the Ender’s Waltz, the preliminary version at least, she didn’t have to forcefully control each shard. Instead, she could control flocks of them instead. A grouping of three, each shard expressing one of the sword dances, was as easy to control as a single shard before. Her swordplay now translated to thrice as many shards as before, and the fact that she dominated the battle against Firehead, and the Weaver, showed it.

If they had been alone, she would have defeated either of them already.

She closed in on Firehead, sending sunshards to strike her above and behind while she brandished Fri’Avgi in a fierce overhead blow. The Chaos Lord cursed as she lurched to her left as Yuriko was in midswing, but she easily changed the greatsword’s momentum and her foes hastily interposed her maul’s haft to block.

Sparks leapt off the contact point, even as Yuriko bore down on the other, using Fri’Avgi’s weight to keep her still. The sunshards dove at Firehead and scored a couple of gashes before Weaver used his ability to move the other. The other viscount had a sword in hand, a scimitar, while holding the sheath in the other He darted in, flickering from place to place, and slashed at her back.

Two flocks of sunshards kept pace with the man and deflected his blows. He sprang in and out of her perception range, which contributed to him keeping his life as the flocks returned to their orbit. A moment later, she saw him launch the scabbard at her, and as she sidestepped, saw it curve in the air. She deflected it with Fri’Avgi, or attempted to since the scabbard avoided the contact. And she saw through her perception aura, as he shifted himself to her back, his use of his technique to fluid for her to prevent.

Another set of sunshards blocked his strike and knocked him back. Firehead lingered beyond Yuriko’s reach, raised her maul overhead and slammed it on the ground. A wave of white flame rushed towards her, following the ground. Yuriko leapt over the attack, but the flames shot up to her and she had to take the blow with her hardened Anima. The flames parted, melting a bit of her protection. She cycled the damaged part of her aura, wincing at the pain, but it was better to do that rather than use up her Adamant Guardian Seals. She kicked off the sky and careened to Firehead, felt the Weaver attempt to shift her trajectory, and stymied him by pressing into her space. Of course, that actually brought her up short, as all of her inertia stopped her in midair.

She lightened her grip and allowed herself to fall to the ground. The two Chaos Lords pulled back, breathing deeply. They’d exchanged blows for several minutes now. Thankfully, Firehead had stopped yelling and cursing so much and was eyeing her warily.

“What did you hope to accomplish?” Yuriko asked.

The white flames burned the little foliage on the ground, but it didn’t go out. Instead, the sand and rocks burned as though they were coals. Yuriko pressed her kinesis against the flames and smothered them. Firehead flinched.

The Weaver’s face was a raging mask, though Yuriko was sure that he hadn’t worn that expression at the beginning. More importantly, where were his doppelgangers?

“You…” Firehead started saying before the Weaver waved her back. She snorted in anger and raised her maul. Blue blood stained her robes and hands, but she didn’t seem much affected. “I will defeat you,” she simply stated.

Yuriko glared at the feisty Chaos Lord and snorted. “Face me alone.” She shook her head and chuckled. “But you can’t, can you? You need him to live.”

“Such confidence,” Firehead mocked. “We stand on unfavourable ground. Two of us just to make this fair.”

“That wasn’t what you said before. Yuriko smirked.

“Enough Wielder.” Weaver sighed. “Young Ancient,” his voice was calm considering the angry expression on his face, “our Lord has seen you on the board.” He tilted his head at her blank look, and then twisted his own into glee, “And he has deemed fit to remove you from it. You moved away from your base of power and now, you will suffer the consequences.”

Ripples appeared around his body. Ripples in the air, and in the ambient Chaos. Yuriko suddenly felt a twist, and then a stab of pain radiated from her chest. The fabric of the plane tore, and a tiny hole into the Primordial Chaos Sea appeared. The local ambient Chaos was pushed away from the hole, even as Primordial Chaos seeped in.

Even without her Chaos Sight, the difference was readily apparent. Yuriko could taste it, smell it, and feel a static shock, a pinprick of MiJins of weight, and the acrid stench of vileness. It was not neutral Chaos, but one heavily aspected to the Chaos Lords.

Weaver continued to pour his Will into widening the hole, but she wasn’t about to let him continue. Her renewed assault was stymied by Firehead, the Wielder according to the Weaver of the Warp and Weft of the World, though she preferred the nickname she thought up.

Firehead blocked the attack she made with Fri’Avgi using her maul, bending to absorb the force. Gouts of white flame erupted to intercept the sunshards, though that did little. A dozen flocks made it past Firehead, but the delay had just been enough.

A couple of multi-hued blobs made it through the gap, then sucked up all of the Chaos and formed into the Weaver’s clones. Genteel mask and Sorrowful Mask. It didn’t take a few seconds for the clones to materialise, but even as they did, Yuriko frowned as she noticed…threads connecting each body to the other, while another one stretched to the skies, but faded away a couple of paces from their backs.

She didn’t have too much time to ponder because as soon as they fully arrived, all three of the Weaver’s bodies rushed her. The Genteel Mast halted a dozen paces from her and flung his butterfly sleeves out. The fabric stretched even as Chaos reinforced the material. Several folding paper fans danced in midair, revolving around him before they shot out like arrows. Raging Mask circled to Yuriko’s left, while the Sorrowful Mask, with his chilling green flames for hands moved to her back.

Four opponents and Firehead were trading blows with her, taking glancing hits to ensure a couple of strikes smashed against Yuriko’s side. Condensed Anima cracked, even as the white flames clung to it. Yuriko gritted her teeth and ignored the pain. Even though the fires didn’t touch her skin, she could feel the burning heat with her Anima. It was bearable though, so she did.

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She kicked Firehead’s knee, and connected with a solid thunk! The Chaos Viscount grunted in pain and staggered back, but before Yuriko could strike with Fri’Avgi, Raging Mask attacked her from behind. She shifted slightly, causing him to miss by a hair’s breadth, then ducked under Sorrowful Mask’s punch. A couple of flocks intercepted them before they could follow up, with the third shard managing to crunch through Raging Mask’s dancing sheath. The man yelped in surprise and pain as the wooden scabbard burned. He furiously patted out the flames, but only succeeded in burning his hand.

Genteel Mask’s sheath tried to wrap around Yuriko’s neck, but she danced out of the way. Their attacks came quickly and furiously, but she could see every movement through her perception aura, and it was easy to move out of the way. She was as agile as they were, faster, and just as strong. Well, as strong as Firehead. The Weavers weren’t so tough.

Their varied attacks were a pain to fight against, even if her shards blocked, parried, and counterattacked for her. It wasn’t a matter of how many times she could divide her attention, but the fact that their attacks had a…weight…to them was impossible to defend against with little invested Will. She flooded Radiant energy down her feet and into the rocky ground. Golden light and molten rocks revealed her footwork as she danced around.

Even so, despite the fact that there were four of them, she held her own. She pressed the attack and knocked back Firehead when she charged in. She deflected white fireballs away, using Fri’Avgi or her Animakinesis to do so. The Weavers continued to harry her, and she grew increasingly annoyed.

He stopped clashing with her directly and instead used his speed and agility to interrupt her movements. Her shards had to stop his sneakier attacks, and he often made to move towards the other battlefield. If he made it there, it would be a slaughter.

The beastkin warriors weren’t here, but were with the convoy of wagons and protected the civilians. They were longstrides away by now and shouldn’t be affected by the battle, unless she was defeated, of course.

Anger coursed through her Anima. At the thought of being hunted. At the thought of the Federation sacrificing their people to the Chaos Courts. And here were their agents. They, who would take innocent life, throw them into a pot and boil them into expendable warriors. The red rage started to overtake her vision, but she growled and harnessed the emotion. Her Mien spread out and touched their Animas, causing all of them to flinch.

In that moment of distraction, she managed to slip in a strike with Fri’Avgi and the shards, with the artefact hitting Firehead. The Chaos Lords flinched and yelped. They fell back while blasting her at range with fireballs, paper fans, and green fist strikes. As for the Raging Mask, his grimace deepened and his scimitar gleamed. A moment later, arclight crescents flew from the blade, though they were easily intercepted by the shards.

The five of them battled across the valley. Yuriko led them away from the cliff face, though she glanced that way once or twice. When she saw that the nameless had been defeated, she heaved a sigh of relief and then focused on her own battle. She ached to use the true Ender’s Waltz or even her Radiant Lance. The first would see her devoid of Will and Animus, while the second wouldn’t work since they wouldn’t let her gather power like that again.

She attacked at the cords connecting the Weaver across his three bodies, but the shards simply passed through the threads as though they didn’t exist. He smirked at her when he saw her attempts, but didn’t deign to mock her verbally. His visible disdain was bad enough.

As the battle wore on, Yuriko’s Anima healed by draining her store of distilled Chaos. The two Chaos Lords grew more and more exhausted, and she worried that they would attempt to escape. This was her third battle with the Weaver and her second with Firehead. She was tired of them running away.

Eyes narrowed, she couldn’t help but think of the connecting threads. Those were the same type that the nameless used to spread the damage she dealt them, but it had always been a closed system, with no threads leading away. So what did it mean about Weaver’s threads?

“There’s another one of you, isn’t there?” Yuriko half whispered.

The Weaver, the Genteel Mask, jerked slightly at her words, which pretty much meant she was right. The coward wouldn’t even bring all of himself to fight her. No wonder he was weaker than Firehead!

No more!

The Ender’s Waltz began.

A powerful slice by Fri’Avgi drove Firehead back a couple of steps. A flock of sunshards caused the Raging Mask to step to his right. Another flock pushed the Genteel Mask forward, while the third struck the Sorrowful Mask’s armguards, causing him to brace himself.

A second wave of attacks pushed them closer to each other, and the third…

Fri’Avgi’s arclight caught all three of them just as they leapt away from each other. The crescent curved at just the right angle to catch each body, even as they moved in different directions. Surprise and fear covered each of their faces, morphing the masks away from their primary emotions. Radiant energy infused in the arclight burned their corpus, and six halves of their bodies fell to the ground.

Firehead roared and struck at her, and another set of shards stopped the woman’s attack from taking Yuriko’s head off.

Darkness crept up at the edges of her vision, but the sheer force of Will, and stubbornness stopped Yuriko from losing consciousness.

She defeated the Weavers but had drained most of her Will and Animus in the process. And Firehead was still there.

Yuriko gritted her teeth and stabbed Fri’Avgi into the ground. Ambient Chaos pulled at the Weaver’s remnants, seeking to devour his remaining Chaos. Now if only the other woman was polite enough to wait.

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