Fusion and Imminent Invasion

Greenday. Break of Dawn.

Royal Knight Princess Kristel, Frill, and Liona were out in the middle of the Flat Lands farther south from where the watchtower stood.

They sat crossed-legged over grass and under a lone tree. Around them were various animals, chirping, trotting, flapping, and doing things in a natural sort of way as if the presences of the three were nothing different than the shade of the tree. From afar, they looked like a group out for a picnic with merry little critters playing with them.

From nearby, what they were couldn’t be differentiated from what a rock would be, still and rigid; or what a river would be, flowing and clear.

Milling was and would always be a fundamental for any practitioner of the Meiyal Arts. They Gathered the meiyal surrounding them as simple and familiar as breathing air, filling their entire system with meiyal and Milling them for amplification and storage.

All three of them used the Perpetual-Layered Milling form, directly taught to them by Katherine after she mastered it from the Gatekeeper. The problem was, the weight and effort it took to practice this form was extremely draining. Only because Katherine showed them the fruits of her labor did they keep practicing, convinced that this method would be easier in the long run.

Practicing this Milling form became a key element in Kristel’s training regimen. And what the Princess did, so would the other two.

Only after an hour passed did any of them open their eyes.

“This is the most boring thing ever!” Liona groaned, slouching in every way a woman of her stature shouldn’t.

Frill had the decency to quiet a sigh. “Liona, that’s not proper.”

“Just let me rest a little, sis. My body’s all stiff!”

“Don’t stretch out too much, or you’ll hurt yourself.”

“I’ll stretch…as much…as I want! Ow!”

Little chatter became a bickering, but Kristel paid it no mind. Only in these little moments would the sisters let loose, zip themselves out of their maid’s clothing and return to their natural selves.

Noise became quiet. The Princess listened with intent, refusing to loosen her form. Until the obvious air of the sisters’ intense stares ripped her out of immersion completely.

She gave out a helpless sigh before reaching out to the buttons of her blouse. She opened her clothes with as much caution as possible, showing skin right above her chest and dropping her collar to show just a bit of her left shoulder.

Light appeared on the Princess’s chest, unveiling the concealment Meiyal Art. A candlelight mark materialized as her meiyal core with smaller versions of itself for meiyal marks, forming from the left side of her core and crawling up layer by layer to the Princess’s left shoulder up to her back. At the end of the pattern, a few marks were left without the dark shade and only had black outlines marking their placement.

“Still twenty,” Liona said, counting the number of blank marks.

The Meiyal Marks System. These symbolized the legitimacy of an Iristan as a practitioner and served as receptors for meiyal and mediums for Meiyal Arts at the same time. There would always be a total of one hundred marks per practitioner.

So far, all over Irista Nation, only Kristel was known to have acquired the highest total of eighty markings since the reign of her father, branding her as Virtuoso—meiyal masters with at least fifty marks in addition to fulfilling a few other requirements.

Obtaining, or for a more correct term, unsealing a meiyal mark varied from person to person. Only the first five marks were known to be consistent for any Iristan to pursue, hence giving them the starting rank of Aspirant.

It might have been pure luck, skill, or ancestral inheritance, or a combination of any that made the Princess the youngest person to have achieved fifty marks in just under a year when she started training, and exceeding Katherine’s record of sixty-two a month after that.

“It’s not about the marks,” the Princess recited like a mantra as she buttoned her blouse with a little more rush than she ought to.

The phrase, they all remembered well, was Katherine’s favorite quote. It’s been almost three years since she left, but her lessons still remained.

“Anyway,” Kristel dispelled the thought, standing as the sisters waited with anticipation. “Let’s begin.”

For this occasion, Liona opted to wear shorts and rubber shoes, not something people commonly wore in the province. She placed a hand on the core over her right ankle and meiyal marks—depicting symbols of small lightning strikes—to reveal them. Compared to the Princess, she had fewer unsealed marks—just fifteen—originating from the core on the ankle going up to the right side of her leg.

Frill also prepared to remove her concealment. She placed a hand on top of her left eye for a brief moment and pulled away as if removing something intangible.

The circular core on her pupil flashed a red hue, and marks appeared out of her purple eye, traveling further left. Her markings behaved differently compared to the other two. They didn’t emit a permanent shape while hovering out of her body instead of crawling onto her skin, fluttering as if blown by the wind. Despite the unusual behavior, Frill had even lesser marks; nine. The sealed marks remained invisible.

“Royal Guard Tryvinal has thirty-six marks, right?” Liona asked while hopping in place, letting herself loose and warmed up. Electric sparks crackled under her feet every time she bounced.

“I didn’t check.” Frill was balancing on one leg while swaying the other in a small circle. “He’s just a big coward, anyway. Who cares?” She said as she switched legs.

“I was so sure you were going to punch him.” Kristel said while doing a few dynamic stretches of her own.

“You said not to.”

“But if it turned out into a fight, do you think you could’ve won?”

It was a trick question.

“He won’t let that happen. Not when he still has the chance to be the next monarch.” Frill answered magnificently. “I wouldn’t let him win either way.”

“Well handled.” Kristel placed both hands on her waist. “So do we give this a shot?”

“Hopefully it works better than last time.” Liona stepped forward. “Keep control, okay?” She placed her hand over the Princess’s meiyal core and closed her eyes. Her body began to glow blue and flowed into the core, merging herself inside the small Princess.

Kristel’s meiyal marks began to change. Fifteen of these, starting from the one closest to her core, adapted the lightning marks Liona had. They didn’t change completely, the candle-tongue fires were simply pierced by lightning marks. The activated marks diminished in the process, receding from the remarkable eighty to just twenty.

The Princess took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, feeling the difference in power and behavior of her body.

Meiyal Fusion. A theoretical Meiyal Art developed to fuse one meiyal system with another. The process would incorporate the submitting individual to the hosting body. This would give the host an exponential advancement in power, but the resulting change in the meiyal system’s overall strength conversely made it increasingly difficult to control.

“You, okay?” Frill held the Princess by the shoulder. Her mark-riddled eye flashed, radiating red hue as she blinked. Because Frill was two years older than Kristel, and a year ahead of her little sister, she had always treated the Princess as her own younger sister during their private time.

Whether she would admit it or not, Kristel loved these small, seemingly insignificant moments. She smiled and gave her big-sister-type attendant a small nod.

“Your turn.”

Frill stared for a few moments. “You sure?”

The ritual to perform the fusion was never to be taken lightly. The three devoted years of practice to even be able to start an incomplete fusion that had brought them a lot of problems.

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In terms of national record, the Art was only considered as a theoretical possibility due to the difficulty of even beginning to realize the first step—converting the whole body of an individual to meiyal. No one has ever been recorded to successfully perform it in actual practice.

At this stage, the combination of Kristel and Liona would have already brought observers to a jaw-dropping awe. But the truth was, there was no practicality in it. So, the Princess wanted to bring that exact feat to the next level.

“Yes, give it a go.”

At the signal, Frill followed the same motion her sister did. Her light had a red hue. After a few moments, the same happened and she vanished.

Kristel’s marks underwent another adaptation. Her meiyal core and nine of its immediate marks lifted out of her skin and fluttered. She breathed in and out again. All the activated marks completely reduced to zero.

“How is it?” Liona’s voice echoed from inside her head.

“So far so good,” Kristel said audibly. She brought up her hands for inspection and afterimages of the sisters’ hands followed in delay. “We’re still not completely synced though.”

The first time they had succeeded in fusion, the afterimages had taken about two seconds to follow. If the whole image of the body were to be left behind, the fusion would dispel.

Beginning from her core, a faint azure light emitted from its outlines and slowly expanded to the markings. This indicated the meiyal mark’s activation. The slow progression of the light was also due to the delay. By the time the light reached about five of the combined markings Kristel had, she began to feel slight spasms from the core, but she continued.

“I still can’t go beyond twenty marks in this state.” A small amount of shame and regret crept within the Princess for not being able to fully take advantage of all her marks.

“We’re really sorry, Kristel, this is probably because of us.” Frill’s voice echoed with sincerity.

“That’s not how it’s supposed to work.” Kristel quickly rebutted. “We’re in a fuse, and I’m the host. You’ve already fulfilled your job when you were able to fuse with me. Matching the synchronization and enhancing the mark activation lies on my end.”

Kristel started with the basics and moved her fingers around, observing the effect of the movement in her afterimages. “Good. Small movement works.” Then she moved her arms in an extremely slow motion. Residual images of one of the sisters—too brief to determine who—vibrated in and out of her arm. She breathed slowly and continued the slow movement.

A few minutes later, the vibrations stabilized and she added her other arm. The frequency discrepancy returned, but a few minutes of practice eventually resolved the problem, signaling her to move her next limb. When she got full exertion of all her primary movements, it was time to increase the speed.

The movements became more synchronized with each passing hour. It was midday by the time Kristel managed a full sprint without concern for any afterimages. She dashed for another hour before she was satisfied with their performance.

“That’s around five hours or so.” Kristel relaxed. “Time for a break. Make sure not to forget how it feels.”

The fuse was released without any particular ritual. It was like giving permission for a knot to loosen and breathe, just pulling one specific end of the rope and everything became untangled.

The sisters emerged, relaxed, and deactivated their marks. Traveling around allowed them to find a certain area with a lot of flattened stones. Peaceful animals walked here and there, and some were even curious enough to stay around. A perfect spot for a short break.

“Spatiera.” Frill opened her spatial Meiyal Art, a small pocket of personal dimension used by Iristan practitioners to store various items for easy transport. From there she pulled out a basket of food.

“You’re taking full advantage of that Spatiera,” Kristel said as she kicked out her legs, leaning back on a small stone. She found the Art handy but was never really fond of it. She kept her things in her person and only used the Meiyal Art if and when it was really necessary.

Frill smiled in amusement. “We would have lost a lot of things if I didn’t.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” the Princess asked, smiling with a challenge.

“Exactly as it means.” Liona managed to break in between the tension by passing a glass of milk to the Princess.

Kristel stared at the glass and then back to her retainer with a questioning and offended look.

“Really?”

“Yes, really.” Liona pushed her weight on Kristel’s legs and extended the glass of repulsive mixture. The Princess tried to push her away, but there was no preventing the inevitable. “It’s good for you,” she insisted.

“Yes, I know that, but I don’t want it!” Kristel defended herself, but she was too locked down to regain her balance.

“You’re never going to get any taller if you stay like that.” Frill double-teamed, taking a left flank, her arms locked around their target. “You’re already seventeen! Just chug it down!”

“I don’t care! Milk doesn’t make you taller!” Kristel struggled in futile effort. She thrashed her head all around to dodge the incoming glass but Liona got hold of her. Some milk spilled from all the commotion, dripping onto the clothes of three wrestling women in the middle of nowhere.

“Princess,” Liona’s voice turned into her usual polite tone.

This change made Kristel painfully aware of how much the sisters cared for her. Despite the way they forced her little body into submission, they did so because they wanted to help her get rid of her weaknesses, no matter how trivial.

“It’s for your own good.”

Scared for some unreasonable cause, Kristel gave a slow nod. She shook as she stomached the whole drink. She ignored the taste of it, she didn’t breathe, and all the while she wished for that moment to end as fast as possible.

“Water,” she said quickly, focusing her consciousness away from the awful aftertaste and washed it as soon as Frill gave her water. She breathed out, relieved to have finally overcome the torture.

“Damn it.” Her hands wiped away the tears peeking out of her eyes. “I can’t believe something like this...” She couldn’t finish the thought. She didn’t want to admit it.

“It’s annoying, to be honest.” Liona finished for her. “You need to learn to drink this on your own, you know.”

“Shut up. I want to eat.”

----------------------------------------

“Alright, time for some serious practice.” Kristel and her maids reformed their fusion, taking an hour this time to re-synchronize their images.

“Flight test?” Liona asked.

“Flight test.”

Kristel activated her marks and performed a flight Meiyal Art, creating a field of meiyal with emphasis on her limbs and head. It lifted her slowly from the ground. She felt for balance, swaying her limbs delicately.

“So far—” Kristel twitched, losing control for a second and almost falling on her back. She regained balance, but over compensated her forward momentum immediately. “Not so good.”

She had flown with Testra, but it was nothing compared to flying solo. It took half an hour feeling for a good grip until she finally stabilized after a series of dangerously close calls.

“There we go.”

It was all about balance and control, for now at least. She calmed down, managing her output on all lifting points. Thirty minutes passed before she was convinced to take the next step, hovering about a meter or two above the ground. Another half hour for some basic aerial acrobatics like somersaults and flips.

“Let’s take this for a spin, shall we?”

Without waiting for a reply from any of the sisters, Kristel unleashed a burst of meiyal and propelled them south with incredible speed. It was like taking an abrupt punch to the face.

“Alright, that hurts.” Kristel slowly decelerated to a full stop and massaged her head.

“That was insane!” Frill’s voice echoed. “What if we split? I almost fell!”

“Sorry.” The Princess didn’t make any effort to sound convincing. “Got a little too excited. I’ll be a little more cautious. We’re going again.”

Their silence was more of a sign of anxious preparation than actual agreement.

Kristel raised a hand in a gesture of meditation and formed a dense meiyal coat around her body. It wasn’t a fully Drawn Meiyal Art, but was still better than a simple Siffera, the body enhancing Meiyal Art.

“This should help against the strong wind. We’ll start slowly.”

If there was one thing Kristel could be proud of in terms of Meiyal Arts, it wasn’t her record for the highest meiyal marks in Irista Nation, but her ability in control and manipulation.

The main reason why no other practitioner attempted to master fusing meiyal systems was because of the extreme handling it demanded. And her confidence in her ability to control not just two, but three combinations of meiyal systems was the sole driving reason why she wanted to achieve mastery of this technique.

Maintaining multiple Meiyal Arts at the same time didn’t pose any challenge for her.

Kristel accelerated in a more reasonable speed this time. As she flew, her vision caught the detailed ranges of Mount Rindea. “I just realized we’ve flown pretty far.” She stopped, staring at the horizon beyond the mountains.

“Don’t tell me...” A dreadful Liona lingered inside the Princess’s head. “You’re going to Vyndival, aren’t you?”

“You guessed it.”

“Alright.” There was annoyance and a hint of sarcasm in Liona’s tone. “We’re not going to stop you as long as you’ll tell us exactly what you’re going to do there.”

“We need to confirm Tryvinal’s report. If what he said was true, then Minaveil’s current defenses have no chance.” The Princess looked to the skies. The sun had begun to set, its green light peeked at gaps on thick cloud formations. “I don’t think we have to wait until evening, those clouds should keep us well hidden.”

“Okay.” It was Frill this time. “We’ll force you out of it if you ever think of landing.”

“Fair enough.”

The Princess ascended until the clouds hovered beneath her feet.

“Be careful now. They say dragons still rule the Land of Skies. We won’t stand a chance against one.” Liona’s ever-cautious voice echoed.

The Land of Skies was a myth, birthed from stories of old. True dragons had not been sighted for a long time, not since the time of the First Monarch, Evanclad Irista who fought against Zerax’thum, the Fallen Dragon.

It was said that the dragon’s sheer power alone changed lands and obliterated entire kingdoms to ashes, and made the earth itself quake with a mere beat of its wings. The dragon itself was, after all, the cause of the Divine Severing.

Records of far lesser dragons were noted in the Nightmare Lands. Ground dragons that could not even breathe fire, or sea serpents that were beyond former shadows of their greater ancestors.

Like the Jaws Lurking in the Forest. Despite classifying the Forest Jaws as a lesser dragon, its reputation as an apex predator wasn’t something to scoff at.

In light of this fairytale myth, a common knowledge was passed down throughout Brymeia: Never fly above the clouds. The Land of Skies remains asleep.

The Princess made it a point to ascend no further.

It took them a while before they passed the mountain ranges. Kristel peeked occasionally to spot their actual location. They’ve just entered the Desolate Lands, a vast desert almost on par with the Flat Lands and known for its gorgeous oases, marking the entrance to Vyndival territory.

Far on the distance, it didn’t even take Kristel a second to notice, was a sea of encampment of soldiers. Her heart skipped and she froze on the spot.

That’s a bit of an exaggeration, the Princess thought. They looked like ants because of the distance, but the encampment covered the entire horizon.

We must prepare. With numbers like those, we don’t even need to confirm if they have the Forest Jaws.

“Summon the Cross Irista.” It didn’t take much for Kristel to regain her composure. “This is of national importance. We’re going back.”

“Are you sure you can handle this, Princess?”

The voice didn’t come from Liona nor from Frill, so Kristel just ignored it.