Staring blankly at the Obsidian Titan’s corpse, Yuriko pursed her lips in deep thought. She flew closer to the head, having an inkling of what she would find. And sure enough, carved on either cheek were the symbols of the Chaos Duke, an empty circle and a crescent moon. The markings didn’t glow with power, though that was likely because the creature was dead. Or as dead as a pile of volcanic rock animated by Will and Intent could be. The symbols had not been visible from afar, though it might be because they were not proportioned according to the being’s size. Instead, they were roughly three-quarters of an inch wide. Hard to see from nearly a longstride away, especially when the rest of the creature’s obsidian skin practically gleamed with internal Chaos.

Her Anima inspected the corpse, but there was nothing distinguishing it from the surrounding rock aside from the shape, and uniformity. It was mostly obsidian, but the interior rocks were a bit more porous and didn’t have the mirror sheen. The obsidian layer was about ten to fifteen paces thick, which was enormous objectively, but considering the thing’s size, it actually felt as if the skin was too thin.

“Yuriko! Hey!” Legate Iola Brygos yelled to draw her attention.

When Yuriko looked towards the older woman, she caught sight of dozens of obsidian titans in the distance, but contrary to what she expected—she honestly expected the giants to attack her or the Imperial towns—they were climbing over the mountain range.

“Where are they going…” Yuriko cut off when she realised there was only one thing the Chaos Duke would want to disrupt, and that was the Ritual of Calling.

She looked at the Legate who was heading her way. Yuriko flew towards Iola and landed a couple of dozen paces in front of the woman. Iola Brygos moved quickly by utilizing crystal orbs underneath her feet, which then rolled forwards like wheels. The orbs were about half a pace wide, and they easily rolled over the rough terrain with minimal fuss. Yuriko’s perception inspected the contraption absently. They weren’t actually attached to the woman’s boot soles, and somehow, she was hovering above the orbs. Somehow, the things kept her balanced on top and pushed along when they moved. Curious skill…

“They’re going after your Mum,” Iola said grimly. “No time to waste. You can fly and you’re strong enough to destroy them. I’ll keep Eastern Rumiga safe. Once they’re through, come back for me.”

“Alright,” Yuriko agreed quickly.

She launched herself to the skies while dragging the three thousand sunblades around her. She nibbled her lip as she considered how she could fight. Using the Trinity sunblades was not really sustainable, and looked like they were too much anyway. Her initial attacks with the sunblades had been repelled by the titan’s obsidian armour, but considering how thin they were, perhaps it would be better to focus her strikes on a smaller area. A thousand or so blades striking in succession should have some effect.

She flew towards the nearest one, which was still several longstrides away. As soon as she came within reach, about a longstride and a quarter, she attacked.

A thousand sunblades aimed at a small point got the job done. By the hundredth blow, she had penetrated beneath the obsidian layer and her weapons wreaked havoc inside the titan. But it still took a couple of minutes to finish it off.

‘I’m coming!’ Eli’Theria yelled.

The Colossus turned into a beam of light and shot from the hangar towards Yuriko, and was absorbed into her Anima. Not quite the same as summoning Fri’Avgi to hand, and she also felt nearly all of her Animus reserves plummet to fuel the transfer. Yuriko quickly landed on the mountainside and changed out of her traveller’s clothes and into the Colossus Core Pilot’s uniform, while transforming ambient Chaos and Radiant energy into Animus. In less than a minute, she was ready and Eli’Theria materialised around her. She felt her Anima spread out and occupy the Colossus’ interior, slipped into the amplifiers and suddenly found herself cramped.

‘You’re not quite ready to pilot our Vasi form, but you’re an exceptionally powerful Ancient. The amplifiers can’t do much more for you.’

Indeed, her Anima reach only extended by another fifty paces rather than a hundred. Still, it would allow her sunblade range to extend all the way to two longstrides. Well, a bit less if she deployed more than two thousand out.

As soon as they were ready, they flew back over the mountains. The Imperial Pass was now nothing more than a road that ended against a pile of rocks. She wasn’t even sure if the road still existed across the mountain valleys, and the last time she tried to cross, she was attacked by the very mountain itself.

Once her flight topped the mountain peaks, she gasped and swallowed in surprise. The obsidian titans didn’t just pop out from the mountain wall; every mountainside, every valley, and every peak had produced the obsidian titans and all of them, hundreds perhaps, were heading towards the Watchtower.

Gritting her teeth, and feeling both Eli’Theria’s and Fri’Avgi’s determination, she attacked the nearest one. A thousand sunblades for that, and another thousand to another within range. A third set was impossible since there were no more within a couple of longstrides of them, so she split five hundred to the other two. It took a dozen seconds for the stream of blades to pierce through their skin, and another five or so seconds before the titans collapsed after she mulched their insides. Two down, ninety or so left.

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She plotted her course and aimed for a spot where she could attack three titans. She moved westward as best as she could, taking twenty or so seconds to destroy…actually, she spent more time flying than destroying, as with each titan down, she learned to target the area just underneath their necks. There seemed to be a weak point there.

Time steadily flowed, and she was only halfway across the Zarek Mountains. Some of the obsidian titans were already across!

Changing tactics, she flew as fast as she could to intercept one of the titans about to cross the last mountain wall. She sent her sunblades to stab it from behind, and it took less than five seconds to penetrate since she sent all of her blades. The golden swords burst from its sternum, and she arrived at its position. She beheld Western Rumiga and growled in anger even as she fought off despair. There were dozens of the things already crossing the foothills and the plains.

Fwish! Boom!

A purple plasma bolt from the Watchtower slammed into a titan, and that was all it took for the giant to fall. Yuriko couldn’t help but gape. That was Da!

To her left, she saw a contingent of warriors fighting the things up close. And the titans that came near the Watchtower were met by a fusillade of plasma balls. At the foothills, she saw the village of Horswick covered by a flickering Protective Dome. A slurry of ice and snow split around the village, and had partially turned to mud.

She cut apart another couple of titans who came within reach. The angle of approach meant that a large fraction of them would come within easy range on their way. She killed another two, before something else happened.

She could see the Vagaris armada crossing into Rumiga, but it looked like it would still take some time. She moved over the foothills now to reach the other titans.

Then, she noticed that one of them paused. Her sharp eyes noted a glimmer of Chaos flash across the Chaos Duke’s symbols, and the titan turned away from the Watchtower and headed towards the village of Nirham that was a few longstrides from Horswick. Several other titans turned towards Horswick instead, and she saw an even dozen head towards Faron’s Crossing. Each one had their symbols glimmer for a moment, then they shifted course.

“Fallen Sun!” Yuriko cursed. The Chaos Duke intervened and changed their instructions. And now, the titans were heading towards vulnerable locations instead of the most fortified one. What should she do?

She moved towards Nirham and destroyed the titan heading there, then turned around frantically to defend Horswick. She saw the others reaching Faron’s Crossing, but its defenders were not toothless. Plasma Carronade fired and dismembered the nearest one, cutting off its leg at the knee. The titan stumbled and fell as its own weight worked to destroy it. Several mostly ineffective plasma bolts peppered the next one, but it wasn’t enough.

One of the Chaos ships shot towards Faron’s Crossing, the Silver Tiger. And it fired its main Carronade at a titan and blasted a hole right through its torso. The Tiger positioned right over the Dome, and Yuriko nodded in relief. She wouldn’t have to worry about her home and her friends and family.

She flitted between Nirham and Horswick, slaying dozens of titans as they came across the mountain. The things weren’t strong, just large and heavy. The only time Eli’Theria got hit by their thrown shards, they bounced off Yuriko’s condensed Anima without leaving a scratch. Her confidence bolstered, Yuriko fought recklessly, crushing every titan she could reach with little thought for defence.

Soon enough it became clear that the rush was soon to be over. No more of them ripped themselves from the mountains, which now looked thin and fragile with how much of the stones were scattered. One peak even collapsed on itself and spread a cloud of dust and grit.

The fighting had lasted long enough that the armada had finally arrived in Rumiga, and the Chaos ships began mopping up the leftover titans. It was only because the things were spawned so far from each other that saved Imperial Rumiga from being trampled to bits.

“An ineffective assault, as though…” Yuriko mused.

‘It was designed to waste time.’ Eli’Theria finished the thought.

Then, the sense of foreboding within her guts intensified.

The mountains rumbled, and some exploded! Columns of ash and lava shot out of broken peaks, while other areas began to sink. In mid-air, Yuriko and Eli’Theria were spared from the quaking, and the fiery boulders spewing from the mountains bounced off her condensed Anima. The same could not be said for the villages.

A streak of fire slammed down on Horswick’s Protective Dome and punched through as though it were made of paper. The fiery projectile slammed into a building and turned it into a burning crater. Yuriko felt bile rise up her throat as she saw unmoving bodies at the edges.

She shot towards the village and used her sunblades to deflect the raining boulders of fiery death. This was much worse than the landslide!

The grim task of defending against this unnatural disaster fell to her, and she didn’t want to fall short. But the Threads of Fate weren’t done. More mountain peaks exploded in fire and earth, and lava wept through the mountainsides. None of them would threaten Horswick, thankfully, so she didn’t have to attempt to divert the flow. The heat they gave out made the air around them shimmer, and the ash clouds drifted and would soon smother the village.

She flew lower, intent on waving the ash clouds away. The villagers were already beginning their evacuation, and honestly, she wondered why they even bothered to stay during the war.

Chaos ships flew towards Horswick and Nirham. They landed just outside the village and spewed out marines to help the civilians. Yuriko kept her vigil, and for a long moment, she thought things couldn’t get worse. She prayed to the Ancestors for shelter, but alas, it was not meant to be.

Some of the mountain peaks that collapsed didn’t end up spewing fire, instead, green pillars of light shot out from underneath. And with them came a heinous voice, laughing.

The pillars rose higher and higher until they struck the Veil above the plane.

And broke it.