For Section Leader Axel Voight, the constant tapping of the telegraph keys in the office was a familiar and comforting sound. His morning had started slow…though considering the state of the Confederacy, such slow days were to be treasured. The instruments in front of him went through their current cycle, and he paid only marginal attention to them. Instead, he had the newspaper spread out in front of him, alongside other dispatches. It was always interesting to note what the public and commons were allowed to know and what was truly going on.

The front pages sang praises of their Richmond Confederacy’s victory against the maudlin Norrithians, who’d spent millions to fortify the Richmond-Norrinth border with bunkers, cannons, infantry, and tanks. Ah, not that the Confederacy was foolish enough to attack a hardpoint.

Chuckling to himself, he matched the dispatch details with the paper’s and noted that the Gensan Times didn’t dwell on the casualties and losses, but focused on how fast they penetrated past the border.

He reached for the cedar box on the corner of his desk, opened it, and fished out a light brown cylinder. He placed the cigar underneath his nose and inhaled the heady aroma.

“To victory, comrades,” he said. And was echoed by his staff.

Grinning, he clipped the end off the cigar and reached for a box of matches. When he opened it, he scowled. Empty. He almost reached for the butane lighter in his pocket but stopped himself. If he wasn’t going to use a wooden match, then there was little point in enjoying his cigar. Ah, but he already cut it, and it would be a shame.

“Second option, it is,” he muttered.

He held his ring index finger and focused on the tip. There was a thick, silver ring at the base of that finger, containing a sliver of reactive malachite, and he reached towards it with his mind. This wasn’t really the appropriate use for such resources, his conscience informed him, but he just shrugged.

A small tongue of orange flame puffed out an inch from his fingertip. Grinning in satisfaction, and making sure that his mind maintained the proper visualisation and focus to maintain the flame, he carefully lit his cigar. He kept the cigar head close, but not quite touching the flame, and he slowly rolled it to get a nice even burn. Patience was the key to a good burn. Well, that and an odourless flame. Haste would ruin things, and if he was really in a hurry, he’d light a cigarette instead.

Just when he was about to finish the light, that was when the instruments on his station began to beep and click. In fact, all of the instruments in the office began to sound out.

“Tsk.” Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Axel put out his fingertip flame, stuffed the cigar in his mouth, but neglected to take the virgin puff as the readouts came.

And the cigar almost fell out of his mouth as he read on. As soon as the readouts finished spooling out of the machine, he barked at his orderlies. “Quick, I need confirmation from Hornberg and Plaus Stations!”

“Yes!”

He stared at the readouts feverishly, going over each blip again and again. He could hardly believe it. An Occult Resonance this strong! And from the initial findings, it was within Richmond Confederacy territory. Now the question was if the resonance was in the occupied lands. If it was, then others would definitely meddle.

It took half an hour for his aide to return with a long strip of paper. His eyes skimmed through the contents twice to make sure, then he examined the readouts from Plaus Station, southwest of Gensan, where his office was located.

“It’s just at the southwest border,” he muttered. He had a report to give to High Command. With the current climate in the Irvalla Region, any source of a potential threat must be investigated. And controlled.

___________

The blood-furred simians were undoubtedly hostile. All Yuriko had to do was look at their eyes and see the malice contained within. The one who spoke bared its teeth at her, and without another word, began to advance threateningly. It…or rather, he…reared back and thumped at his chest, creating a loud boom that blasted the dust from around him. The sound echoed and made her people jump in fright.

Yuriko cautiously expanded her perception aura to its full reach. The first simian was just a couple of paces beyond it. Her eyes darted to other blood apes, counting a dozen or so. More importantly, the rifts they came out of weren’t closing. In fact, they were widening even as the lead ape postured.

Her moment of distraction was when the beast lunged at her, though it prefaced it with a bloodcurdling roar that had elements of mental domination that she angrily shook off.

“Eeeei!”

One of the twins, Orrin, she thought, squealed in fear, which also served to jolt them out of their panic. Yuriko met the simian’s charge, but she wasn’t foolish enough to try matching her strength with it. Even if she was as strong as it was, the thing probably outweighed her five times over!

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She ducked under its swiping paw, drew her Arclight Sword from her waist, and sliced it across its forearm.

Skriiiick!

Sparks flew from where the blade met its fur, and even worse, it didn’t even leave a scratch. Frowning, she danced back against its hammer blow, then lunged into a thrust, this time, letting the third dance in ascendance. Golden light covered the blade and the tip sank a couple of inches into its flesh. The beast grunted and then bowled her over. Well, it tried to. It was much less agile than she was, and it was easy to avoid him while blocking them from advancing. The rest of the blood-furred simians weren’t attacking. Instead, they gathered in a loose circle, spectating. They even roared and cheered as the two of them exchanged blows.

She was still woozy from travelling through the portal, and the Animus flowing through her body felt strange. The Radiant energy from her Essence was at her beck and call, however, so she infused them into her Arclight Sword, and at the same time, began forming sunshards.

The simian glanced at the glimmering sunshards, scowled at her, then struck. She ducked under his punch, but then, her perception aura noticed something alarming. The ape’s arm blurred, then split in two. The illusion of another arm broke when the one extending forward turned out to be an afterimage, while the other rearing back snapped into another strike, from a higher angle and aimed at where she was moving to.

Yuriko stomped down on the ground and pushed her Animakinesis against it, altering her trajectory. She moved her body just out of the way, and she slammed the Arclight Sword’s pommel on the ape’s wrist, deflecting the blow fully. It was like slamming into a mountain. Thankfully, she could break boulders apart with a punch, so it wasn’t so bad.

“Argh!”

The simian roared, then the strange afterimage appeared again, but this time, it was the entire creature’s body. He barreled into her and succeeded in making contact. Yuriko was knocked off her feet, but her Animakinesis dug into the floor, cracked the stone and made a three-pace-long furrow as she slowed, then arrested their momentum. Huh, he wasn’t that strong after all.

Then she slammed her palm on top of his head, with the full force of her Anima, and crushed him to the ground.

Boom!

The shockwave cleared ten paces around them of dust, and the resulting cloud made everyone cough and sputter.

Heh. All that without using her sunshards.

That was when the rest of the simians attacked. And out of the corner of her eye, she saw even more of them emerge from the rifts.

“Fire!” Seran yelled, and a fusillade of superheated plasma bolts slammed into the incoming time of blood-furred simians. The bolts splashed into their fur, but to little obvious effect. Through her perception aura, she knew that the underlying hide got burned, but most of the heat sluiced off with the plasma. A second volley slammed into them, most striking the very same spot they initially hit and to greater effect.

“Gragh!” Pained roars did little to arrest their momentum, and it was the beastkin who met the charge.

Kassy’s body writhed as she transformed into her battle form, but for some reason, it seemed to take longer. Too long, as she was in the midst of growing bigger when the blood simian slammed a fist, bony protrusions on the knuckles, into her crossed forearms. Kassy skidded back, yowling in anger.

Crack! Pop!

The transformation completed, and with razor-sharp claws, Kassy’s furious swipes were aimed at the ape’s face. The creature howled and somehow ignored the pain. It grabbed the smaller wild cat hybrid and wrestled her to the ground.

“Kassy!” Rolland yelled, but he was busy with his own fight. His transformed jaw opened wide and bit into the crimson ape’s throat, then with a mighty wrench, he tore it wide open. The brutal assault only egged the creatures on, and they clashed with the remaining beastkin.

At the same time, Heron and Gwendith unleashed their Anima to fight. Gwendith’s ice crystals shattered and spread frost across one of the simians’ fur. Heron managed to hold his own against it, using both his spear and hardened air shield. Gwendith was frowning as her hands and fingers twitched. A slight haze covered the air above the frost, and after a few more ice daggers slammed into the creature, tongues of flame emerged above the fur. Gwendith gritted her teeth and her Anima took the flames, funnelled them into a small vortex, and slammed them into the creature’s face.

As for Yuriko’s foe, he was trying to get back on his feet, but his arms and legs collapsed under him. She saw fragments of broken bone sticking out of his skin, but the ferocity on his face never wavered.

“Finish me,” he growled at her. So she used her sunshards to pierce his skull. The shards easily penetrated their fur and skin. Bones too. And so she decided to finish the battle before someone got seriously hurt.

Two dozen sunshards danced in the air, lit up the dark chamber, and spelled doom for the blood furred simians. They were a fine foe to test her prowess, yes, but all they had were brute strength and toughness.

Snikt! Snikt!

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The simians fell, one by one. They never tried to run, and as soon as they realised that she was the one killing them so quickly, they ignored their current foes and tried to get to her. But the numbers weren’t on their side. Of the original dozen that came out, another ten emerged from the rifts, but they fell in quick succession. And then, the creatures stopped coming out, and the holes in the fabric of the plane visibly healed over.

Less than fifteen minutes since the creatures came out, the rifts closed, and if not for her shards, the chamber would have been plunged into darkness again.

But then…wisps of Animus were drawn towards the portal rods. It came from the simian corpses, as well as the marines and beastkin. The others, Asami, the twins, Izna, and Arman, had already left the chamber and were waiting worriedly in the corridor.

“Burning Moon! I’m almost dry!” Kassy yelped. Her body rippled and twisted, and soon, she was back into her humanoid form, with only cat ears and tail as marks of her lineage.

“Go!” Yuriko said.

Her sunshards were wobbling now that she wasn’t making them dance. With fearful eyes, she saw the Animus matrix that served as structure for them began to unravel, and wisps of Animus drifted towards the rods. She pulled them towards her, and that took far more effort than she expected it to. She dared not unravel them here, else the Animus would empower the portal remnants and probably make more rifts.

And so, they fled the portal chamber. The corridor bent to the right after a dozen or so paces and to the left another ten paces away. By then, they were far enough away from the portal that their Animus wasn’t being siphoned towards it.

However, almost all of them were still having trouble keeping their Animus within. What was going on?