Yuriko felt her body disintegrate. The feeling should have frightened her but Damien’s knowledge and wisdom won the day. It was the beginning of Transformation and it was…unexpectedly nice.
It was as if she got a full body massage, soaked in a hot spring for hours, then got another luxurious body treatment, all while enjoying chocolates by the dozen. Ahn…so good.
Shivering in pleasure, she stretched and was abruptly reminded that while her body was turning into Radiant energy, her gear and clothes weren’t. They stuck onto her outline and if she shifted too much, they would likely disintegrate as her Radiance ate them up. But that was simple enough to solve. A mental twist was all it took to take her clothes and gear into the safety of her Anima.
She felt her senses expand and it was as if her body had disappeared. She was simply her Anima, nothing else. She stretched and reached out. She could see farther than before. Twice as much. Most of her was Radiant energy, but parts of her were the sword, and with the foundation of the Four Elements, she remained grounded in reality. Empowered because of it rather than despite of.
That moment of glory lasted all of a second before she felt a spike of pain. She reflexively contracted and was back into her human body, naked.
Looking down on herself, her skin was still as pale as alabaster, smooth and hairless. Sighing to herself, and somewhat missing the tan she had when she was thirteen, she willed her clothes and gear back on. They appeared with little fanfare, but then, she panicked as she dug into her pack, chuckling in relief when she saw the Orb of Authority sitting there. Keeping Eli’Theria inside her Anima had strict rules, but it seemed going into energy form circumvented some of them. For that matter, could she now pilot Eli’Theria’s Vasi form?
She was tempted to sit and examine the changes within her but she had already wasted a day tempering her physique and Anima. Her reach had exceeded a hundred paces and was approaching two hundred now. Actually, it was precisely two hundred paces. Radiant Body Refinement and Radiant Anima Refinement didn’t matter now, though both only reached ninety-seven percent. A bit below her goal, but she achieved something else anyway.
Her core was infused with her Essence now but was still at thirty percent infusion. That was mostly Radiant though, and she wasn’t sure how to proceed with the Ennoia of the Radiant Flying Sword…or simply, the sword. The Radiant part of it was because of her Colligia and would proceed when the former does. The Flying part was just her application, while the Sword was the foundation.
A sunblade formed in her hand, but she frowned when it appeared. It felt off, for some reason, as though it wasn’t quite the right shape or size. She let it dissipate and created another, this one just a bit longer. Ah, and she removed the circular guard that was the hallmark of the sideblade. She didn’t know why she kept it other than habit. The sunblade wasn’t about to attach to a Plasma Caster, so there was no need. It soothed her sensibilities a bit, but the form of the blade was still off. Not long enough? It occurred to her that she first created her sunblade nearly three years ago, back in Kogasi and Bella. She was a bit shorter then, and the length of the blade needed to extend to match her arm length. She waffled over whether to keep it single-edged or on both sides, finally deciding on a cross between an arming sword and the sideblade, with an actual cross guard but with a straight blade with a single edge. The tip curved to a point much like the Chaos swordsman’s or the sideblade though. So, er, essentially it was in the shape of a sideblade minus the circular guard. Yup.
It felt better against her hand, and when she activated the sword dances, she felt that the instincts imparted by the dances were suddenly stronger, and didn’t just give suggestions. However, she also felt the need to give a purpose to the action, and when she defaulted to simple practice, she felt whatever it was influencing her sword dances pull back. Huh.
Perhaps she needed live target practice. She conjured a couple of dozen sunblades and tried to make sunshards only for her Ennoia to protest. Sunshards were unnecessary. Alright then.
A couple dozen sunblades which she sent out to map the tunnels. She had two longstrides of range on them now, which seemed so incredible she could hardly believe it. What would happen when she piloted Eli’Theria with Mum? Her Anima reach would multiply by ten, so it would reach two longstrides by itself. Would her sunblades reach ten times that distance, too? So she could effectively reach twenty longstrides with her sword? Wasn’t that wider than most cities?
She shivered in excitement.
The sunblades carried her perception with them as they sped past dozens of branches and tunnels. In the rooms they entered, they fought swarmlings, Wanderers, Hunters, nameless, and the odd Chaos baron every now and then. And that was when the Ennoia of the Radiant Flying Sword showed its worth.
Despite dividing her attention twenty-five ways, two dozen on the swords, and one on her own body and position, the presence of the Ennoia made things far simpler than she could ever imagine. Each blade encountered a different set of enemies, and while she would have made the blades adapt to each one, the amount of focus she would have to sink into the act would have made her head hurt just as much as prolonged reading would have. It was different now.
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With each blade and each strand of consciousness, the Ennoia whispered to her how she should move the blade. She could see where each strike would deal the most damage, where the enemies’ defences were the weakest, and how to eliminate inefficiencies in her form. All of that came in an unobtrusive nudge every now and then, disappearing when she made the optimal movement. It was like someone spotting her and telling her all of her mistakes, but right before she could commit to it. She also felt that she could simply let the Ennoia take control of her blade, though she would learn less that way. However, with twenty-four blades and twenty-four strands of consciousness, it meant that she could let the others move through the Ennoia and give focus to as many or as few as she wanted. So it meant that no matter how many sunblades she controlled, each one would fight at her peak efficiency.
And with that thought, she summoned more blades. Each one that went beyond her reach lowered her Anima expansion by an inch. At two hundred paces, she had eight thousand inches of reach. She used up a thousand inches to hold Eli’Theria within her Anima and used four hundred to protect herself. She could use the rest to restrict her physique so she could train, or boost it so she could fight better. And now, the new option was to have more sunblades outside of her reach instead. She created a thousand sunblades and dropped her Anima reach by the same amount then sent them on their way. The maze, which had so many chambers and branches suddenly became that much easier to navigate, even if her effective range dropped by two hundred fifty paces.
While that was an eighth of her range, it wasn’t all that significant. When her sunblades began to encounter each other, she knew she was close to completing her exploration. Until she encountered a single stairwell near the opposite wall. Since she needed to move closer to move the blades above, she continued on her way. The tunnels and chambers were now empty of hostels, though she encountered many barbarian prisoners. She executed the men while leaving the women alone.
And there was no sign of Kato or Caera.
Frustrated, Yuriko walked around until her sunblades explored every nook and cranny of the floor maze. Then, she moved towards the stairwell, which went up fifty paces before winding up in another labyrinth. As she moved closer towards the stairs, she let the blades explore. It was practically the same as where she was now, and by the time she climbed up, she killed thousands of Wyldlings and hundreds of nameless. There were no prisoners on that level, and she didn’t know what purpose the maze had. She could only assume that it altered itself to protect against her entry.
She didn’t find another stairwell on that floor, but she did find a large tunnel that led away from the maze. As she approached, all of her sunblades converged into the large tunnel, and halfway down, roughly a hundred paces, she stopped and grinned. Who else could be guarding it other than the Chaos swordsman?
Her sunblades immediately attacked. Yuriko controlled forty blades while keeping the rest to scout the surroundings. She even sent a few dozen down the tunnel beyond the Chaos swordsman while he was preoccupied with her attack. The others she used to surround the swordsman so that he would stay within her blades’ perceptive range.
Forty blades attacked at once. Yuriko obeyed her Ennoia’s instructions and struck the man in a cycle that eventually forced him to sacrifice a hit or get decapitated. The pattern was mesmerizing to Yuriko, and reminded her of the Ender’s Waltz, though without the horrendous cost of lumens and Will. It got substituted by the sheer amount of sunblades attacking accurately and precisely in quick succession.
“Where are you?! Show yourself!”
The swordsman roared as one of the blades stabbed into his arm even as he used the rest of his blades to protect his neck and head. Yuriko smirked while slowly strolling towards his position. She kept the rest of the blades exploring around her and executed any Chaos dweller she found.
The barrage continued and she thought of using his waveform attack, if only to show him how much she improved and how much she hated that he wounded Eli’Theria. But the moment she tried, her Ennoia slapped that notion out of her mind.
It wasn’t her technique, it was his. To copy it completely would only taint her own foundations. The Flying Sword was her Ennoia and using it, she could overwhelm any opponent with numbers and skill. No need for fancy secret techniques that left her gasping for breath since she used up her reserves, huh?
Still, she had command of a thousand blades, each capable of fighting as she would in person. There was absolutely no reason to put herself at risk…
Frowning, she shook her head and rejected that sentiment. While she would not disdain the style, it didn’t mean she had to be extra cautious. What would happen if an enemy got close, huh? Would she be helpless then? The flying swords fulfilled her initial dream of ranged supremacy, even if she couldn’t quite reach her father’s range. At the same level, Da could target and kill an enemy a league away. At his current stage, he could manage ten times the distance.
Her heart felt light as she laughed. The swordsman was slowly getting worn down. She ignored his commiseration, his taunts, and insults.
I would have preferred a duel, but this is fine, Damien commented.
‘It is a duel!’ Yuriko insisted. ‘I’m fighting him one-on-one, aren’t I?’
Heh, you’re right, you cheeky kid. Congratulations on advancing.
Did she detect pride in his voice, or was there a hint of disappointment? Ah, it was the showman in him. Alright, she could put the enemy down with a bang.
She held out a hand and formed another sunblade, and this one was tipped with the Trinity Cycle. Then, she shot it towards the swordsman, who was far too busy defending himself and trying to retreat to notice the deadly missile. And he was still doing that when the Trinity sunblade made contact. And the last expression on his face before he was pulled into the self-annihilating cycle was wide-eyed surprise.