Integration
> “Scarlet Fury, Velvet Fear, Golden Glory, Azure Calm…hmm, what else is there?” ~Elizzel
It had been approximately five minutes, but with the unending stream of lesser Nightmares, Katherine felt an hour had passed. Fortunately, Kristel was holding her own. With Katastrofera’s display of destruction, they were able to grab the initiative on their side. It was a significant morale boost both for her and the Princess.
Katherine maintained her pace, utilizing as little stamina and meiyal as possible. She redirected a lunging Nightmare elf towards a dwarven counterpart with a mere flick of her arm. The two slammed on the ground next to Frein.
I, Alone, Am the Center remained Open, continuously monitoring every enemy movement. Eight of Those That Fell Off a Cliff circled around them in organized fashion. Their particular movement solidified the theory that at least one Forest Jaws were commanding them.
Focusing on the edges of her Void Control Technique still gave her no indication of the elusive Nightmares. She directed her frustration towards the two lesser ones and turned them to ashes with a flash of Ferenfra. A hint of guilt tugged at her conscience, but she brushed it aside.
These people had been long dead. They were fortunate enough to perish before turning into lesser Nightmares. The fate of a Grinding Teeth on Living Flesh was short lived compared to these lucky abominations; Grinders kept their hosts alive in madness the entire time. Katherine was relieved to know she couldn’t detect any of that kind. Their appearance would indicate a Deep Nightmare close by, and that would be more of a problem than facing three Forest Jaws and their army.
“How are your reserves, Kristel?” she asked while turning her attention to another lesser Nightmare that tried to disturb Frein. It was suddenly pinned down by something invisible. Enza, she assumed. The Lady promptly burned the poor creature, trusting the yuma would disengage in time.
“Still plenty,” replied the Princess. She decided to erase Kaimfra from reality, only Drawing the Art when dealing the final blow. In front of her were five rushing lesser Nightmares. She shortened her meiyal blades into daggers and lowered her center, preparing to defend herself.
Katherine nonchalantly pulled forward another lesser Nightmare off its balance. With a step, she tackled it with a Siffera-enforced shoulder, sending the sluggish creature flying towards its own kind. The Lady didn’t bother checking what happened to them, her attention directed at the Princess.
Five lesser Nightmares lunged at Kristel at the same time. She leapt towards one of them, striking at it mid-air with both daggers. She Drew Kaimfra for a swift instant, burning the malformed felintine from the inside. The other four landed where she had been a second ago. They turned in confusion, trying to find their target.
As soon as she landed, Kristel threw both enflamed daggers on separate lesser Nightmares, hitting them dead-on their foreheads. Before the remaining two could even turn to meet the Princess, she had already retrieved both daggers and plunged them on another malformed creature. It didn’t even take another second for her to finish off the last one.
While Kristel dispatched her assailants quickly and efficiently, Katherine concluded that the Princess could last for another fifteen minutes at most. If she could do Mesiffera like Frein, she could probably pinpoint exactly how long. Regardless, she had to deal with the Fallen within that timeframe if they were to increase their chances of surviving.
“I’ll go hunt the eight Fallen,” she called out while burning another dozen lesser Nightmares. “Can I leave Frein to you?”
“As long as your quick. I don’t know how much longer I can maintain this. Probably about ten minutes.”
Katherine smiled. “You can do better than that.” Before the Princess could even complain, she had already gone.
Come to think of it, this is the first Art Frein learned all by himself, Katherine thought as she tracked down the first Fallen. She made a mental note to congratulate him properly later. First, she needed to focus on her job. It only took her a few seconds to reach her target.
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It was smaller compared to the one that infiltrated Minaveil yesterday. She closed in, quickly, but the Nightmare was quick to react. It prepared its Negating Roar, an ability they used to render Arts and Armaments useless. It could even temporarily disable meiyal-crafted structures within the roar’s area of effect.
For those of the Meiyal Arts discipline, they could overcome this hindrance by integrating a meiyal-charged material found in Mount I’sol named, Purifying Stone. It was a rare material and highly coveted by adventurers for their instantaneous protection to resist small levels of Nightmare influence. However, for a Lady of the Void like Katherine, a simple Void Control Technique would suffice.
She Opened her meiyal core and pushed forth her influence. Peace Within the Chaos. A veil of protective meiyal traced around her body. The Fallen roared but its effect bounced off, causing the Nightmare to flinch.
With its balance broken, the Lady of the Void dashed over the collection of tied-up skulls above its stomach and severed it with extreme precision.
Katherine was already dashing through the forest in search of the next one before Those That Fell Off a Cliff even fell to the ground.
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Frein hovered his hands around the Emerald Guidance. A force pushed against him, repelling him with jolts of energy. Pure meiyal energy.
“The Colors of Power generally only work in combination with others of it’s kind,” Elizzel explained while Frein continued to play around the material. “You will still gain some benefits from the Emerald Guidance, but basically, we can’t utilize it to its fullest potential yet.”
“But will it still be useful against the three Forest Jaws?”
“I’ll be more useful than this one in that case, but you shouldn’t discard boons like this.”
“What about a limit? How many materials can I integrate in my Exhibit?”
Elizzel shrugged. “Haven’t heard of a limit. Most mortals integrate with only about five to ten of them before they get too old to care for more materials.”
Frein nodded and resumed his study of the Emerald Guidance. “How will you help me integrate with this?”
“Well, to keep it simple, I’ll be your proxy. You can treat me like one of your meiyal marks, only, I’m worth the entire hundred.”
“That means I can integrate with any materials!” Frein’s concentration suddenly broke, and the Emerald Guidance pushed him away. He fell on his butt.
“That’s a no,” Elizzel giggled as she interpreted for him. “You still need to meet two main requirements before you can attempt to integrate with a meiyal-charged material. First, you have to be able to Gather it inside your system. Some materials vanish within minutes of getting exposed to natural meiyal, some exists perpetually. And second, you have to make sure the material is either pure, or you can handle its influence.”
The picture of Katherine Gathering the charged material from the dead Forest Jaws crossed his mind. Curiosity nagged at him, but he shoved it away. There were enough curiosities right here to keep his attention.
“That’s right,” Elizzel said, reading his thoughts through their connection. “If I allow you one freedom, you should deal with its consequences whether or not you abuse it.” She reached out a hand and helped Frein on his feet.
“Faunel of Freedom and Consequences. That’s a fair bit of contradiction, huh?”
“As it is with our nature.” Without letting go, Elizzel turned to face the Emerald Guidance. She gestured towards Frein, holding up her free hand. “Now, time to integrate.”
They held the meiyal-charged material at the same time. The force tried to repel them, but this time they pushed through it. The barrier gave in and they both held the leaf simultaneously. It stayed still for a while and Frein couldn’t help but feel a sense of trepidation.
When the leaf vanished, Frein thought they had failed. Disappointment washed over him as he tried to let go of Elizzel’s hand. The faunel refused and tightened her grip.
“Tell me where to put this.” Elizzel’s chest glowed green. “The sooner the better.”
The disappointment vanished and excitement quickly replaced it. Frein tried to stay calm. “Are there any recommended places?”
Elizzel pulled on his hand and they both headed towards the Exhibit’s main room. “Not really. It’s not permanent. You can always move them around. Though, it takes some time whenever you do.
“My personal recommendation would be one of the corners. The more Colors of Power you have gathered together, the more benefits you will get. But they’re not exactly the type of masterpiece you would want at the center. That’s the only place you reserve for your Magnum Opus.”
“Magnum Opus?”
“That’s for another time. When you’re stronger.”
Frein understood and quickly considered his options. He picked the upper-left quadrant of the room and settled for that corner. With Elizzel’s instructions, he moved a small pedestal display case and aligned it perfectly with the corner.
The faunel reached inside and the green glow transferred into it, manifesting the Emerald Guidance. As soon as the material settled, the pedestal changed its design to match its color aesthetic. It adapted dark wooden shades with emerald swirly designs.
This time around, Frein felt a change. Observing from the inside of his mind, he could feel his Milled meiyal’s desire for direction, for guidance, as if the meiyal asked to be used rather than wait obediently to be Drawn.
“You have to Mill and make them calm down, Frein.”
It was the opposite of what he wanted to do. He wanted to get out of his internal self and find something to fight to test his new limits.
“I get what you’re feeling, Frein. But you have to calm down. You can’t even talk anymore. The power you’re getting from the Emerald Guidance isn’t that strong, but it’s too much for you right now. You have to tame it. Mill. Please.”
Frein felt himself shaking around from Elizzel’s incessant urging. It helped him to regain composure. He sat and began to Mill.
“How much time do I have left?” he asked.
“One hour.”
“Plenty of time.”
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