The Fysalli dumped Yuriko and Sadeen at the edge of the city, which had transformed greatly even after her last visit. Gone were the neat and tidy buildings, and gone were the fruiting trees. Instead, only rubble remained where the outskirts were.

The wall containing the inner city was intact but she couldn’t see beyond it. The mining pit at the edge of that wall was glowing with green light. And it was imminently clear where the light pillars came from when the pit suddenly burst with a beam of light that shot straight towards the cavern’s faux sky. The beam stopped short,

but only because it entered a strange circle that opened to absorb it. Yuriko could only stare as she recognized a portal.

All at once, she realised why the Chaos Duke was so adamant about assimilating Rumiga. It was Synkrasia all along. And perhaps its connection to the Siderious. The ramifications crashed down on her.

Siderious was connected to Synkrasia through the portal hub. What would happen if the duke took control of that hub? Would he be connected to Siderious, too? And if he took over that place, a planar mobile fortress whose main purpose was to suppress the rampaging Primordials as well as supply a never-ending flow of warriors…?

How did she know that? She…had not studied the Siderious at all, nor did she uncover many things about it. She was sure neither Mum, Da, nor the others knew. The Chaos Marchioness there…did she know? She did, didn’t she?

The Chaos duke will control Rumiga, merge with the plane, then through the portal hub, extend his influence into a mobile war fortress plane. Perhaps he could assimilate that too! Something used to suppress Primordials! In one step, he would ascend from mediocrity all the way to the peak!

She had to stop him!

Sadeen grabbed her arm before she could take a step.

“Baby, bring out Eli’Theria.”

“Uhm, yes,” Yuriko said, feeling a bit shamefaced. She shook her head as she tried to push down her panic and anger. She didn’t have a target yet, so her emotions were wasted. Besides, she was not an emotional fighter. Sure, her attacks grew stronger, but the lessening control was untenable.

As she brought out Eli’Theria, she looked around and wondered, “Where are the Legates?”

“The Silver Cords are still inert. They will reactivate when the two come out. For now, we press on.”

Yuriko nodded. Eli’Theria appeared and both of them entered the hatch. The Legates hadn’t exited the Fysalli by the time the Colossus was ready, so the two of them ventured into the ruined city. The sky reflection was splotchy and revealed several gaps that showed the cavern’s ceiling beyond the illusion.

Yuriko began conjuring her sunblades again. The passage through the Fysalli Veil dispelled her flying swords, though she managed to keep hold of a couple at the last minute. She sent the sunblades out to reconnoiter though they probably would head straight to the mine pit.

It was a good thing she sent the blades out. In the middle of the central zone, exactly where the portal hub was, she found…people.

Eyes widening in alarm, and not a little bit of joy, she exclaimed, ‘Kato!’

‘Huh, where?’ Mum asked.

‘Central district. Portal hub. There are prisoners there!’

‘...let’s go.’

Eli’Theria took to the air and flew towards the wall. They crested it easily and dove towards the central grounds. Sunblades spun into existence around her and were sent flying forward.

The prisoners were in cages and looked to be asleep. Their guards were Chaos Lords. Her sunblades made short work of them, cleaving through their foul flesh with little trouble.

Thud!

Eli’Theria landed heavily just at the edge of the courtyard. The Chaos Lords barely put up a resistance. The prisoners in the cages, which were honestly just big enough to hold a dozen prone bodies side by side, and weren't even tall enough to allow the people there to sit up! The cruelty was maddening and she wasted little time in breaking the locks. She wrenched the gates open and reached into Kato’s cage using her Animakinesis.

No sooner had her Anima touched her brother when it burst into a thick cloud of green lights.

“HAHAHAHAHAHA!”

All of the bodies burst into clouds of green, then converged into an orb, which then slammed into Eli’Theria!

‘Tsk!’ Sadeen clicked her tongue, but at the same time, a white concave disk spun into existence just before the orb hit, which reflected the attack backwards while simultaneously dispersing it across the inner city. The cages, the courtyard, the buildings…they all began to melt and fade away.

Yuriko gasped as she felt a shiver of fear run up her spine. Eli’Theria took to the air while the city turned into a barren cavern save for the mining pit, which still spat out pillars of green light.

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‘What was that?’ she blurted out, not a little bit of anger mixed in with dismay.

‘What else but a trick?’ Sadeen grumbled. ‘Don’t let your guard down, my child. That is often when you’ll meet your end.’

‘You knew?’ Yuriko asked accusingly.

‘Of course not, but I’m always suspicious of everything when it comes to a Chaos Lord.’

‘Oh. Are…are we still in a Fysalli?’

‘What do you think?’ Mum kept her voice neutral.

Yuriko frowned and spread her Will across her Anima. She pulled at the ambient Chaos to form a Radiant Lance and when she met little resistance, coupled with the fact that this didn’t feel at all like a Fysalli, she shook her head. ‘I don’t think so.’

‘Yes, you’re right. This isn’t a Fysalli, but it is saturated with the Chaos Duke’s Domain energy. I…I can’t identify it.’ Mum sounded wary. ‘It might be best to wait for the other two.’

Yuriko reluctantly nodded. But then again, it wasn’t as if she and Mum could face the Chaos Duke by themselves. But more than anything else, she grew even more worried about Kato. She dipped into the dreamscape and sought out her brother’s thread, but nothing had changed. The link was attenuating, though it didn’t look as if it would be cut. She still couldn’t determine where he was, just that he was alive. Her link with Caera Sawthner wasn’t all that strong since she honestly didn’t get along with the older woman, but at least she could determine that she was also alive.

‘If we cannot find them after everything else, I will ask the Progenitor to use the Fateweaver Loom,’ Mum said decisively.

“Best if we find them,’ Yuriko said.

‘Of course.’

The two of them settled down to wait, but it didn’t look like the Chaos Duke would let them reunite with the two Legates. Only a minute of idleness passed after the mine pit spat out its pillar of light when a figure rose from the depths.

Then another, and another. Yuriko glared since she recognised them all. They were Chaos Lords and many of them she’d fought before. But…she was pretty sure the Seeker of Delights was dead, wasn’t he or she? The form he took was the same one she fought during the training camp.

There was also the Weaver of the Warp and Weft of the World. The Oathsworn Cleaver of Dreams. And the Wielder of Divine Flame.

‘They’re not real,’ Yuriko said through gritted teeth.

Firehead had turned into the Devotee of Radiant Fire, and the Seeker had been devoured by Fri’Avgi. While she wasn’t sure if the Oathsworn had suffered true death, it wasn’t that strange for him to return. Ah, but she only beat him up yesterday.

So who were those things, or rather, what were they? They all gave the same eerie grin, and their cheeks burst with blinding light, revealing the crescent moon and empty circle.

Were they incarnations of the Watcher? Why would he reveal his capability of transforming now? To discombobulate them?

Mum didn’t even hesitate. She had already begun casting her spells, and while Yuriko stared in shock, obsidian cranes, magma tentacles, and silver snakes were already flying out. The varied Chaos Lords easily defended against the attacks, each one supporting the other, and covering their weaknesses. The Weaver manipulated the fabric of reality and altered space, moving allies away from Mum’s attacks, or even shifting the attacks themselves.

A spider with the upper body of a woman flung sickly white webs to catch the cranes, while the Oathsworn waved his battleaxe around, creating arclight crescents. None of them tried to attack Eli’Theria and they simply blocked the mine pit entrance.

Shaking her head and her stunned surprise, Yuriko produced hundreds of sunblades and sent them flying. The Chaos Lords, even if they worked well together, flawlessly in fact, numbered less than fifty. Let’s see how they handle taking on fifty sunblades each!

As soon as she sicced the swords on them, she allowed the Ennoia to control most of the blades but actively controlled the set fighting against the faux Seeker. The baron barely lasted a second once she focused on him, but she did ascertain that it was the Seeker’s skill. The fact that his cheeks bore the Duke’s marks made her think that he, and the other Chaos Lords, were incarnations.

Too many thoughts, too many doubts. Focus.

Eli’Theria kept her distance from the mining pit since she could easily fight across a ten-longstride range. Mum’s spells seemed to have a higher range than that, but Yuriko knew Sadeen preferred a closer distance. More and more fake Chaos Lords died but then, more of them came out of the mining pit. In fact…aren’t those the same Chaos Lords?

The Seeker returned. The Weaver did too as the mobility specialist had been one of the first Yuriko targeted. Mum’s spells continued to pressure them as the need for defence opened up gaps for Yuriko’s blades.

‘Need to close,’ Mum said.

Yuriko nodded and flew them closer. There was no material benefit for her to do so, but she did send a few sunblades to check the pit. A pair managed to slip through and dive down, but was obliterated when the pillar of light emerged.

When the pillar faded away, Yuriko and Sadeen were faced with even more Chaos Lord copies. Her sunblades guided by her Ennoia slew many of the weaker Chaos Lords with ease, but she had some trouble fighting the tougher Chaos viscounts. At least until she focused more blades on them or took direct control. Mindful of how to improve, Yuriko didn’t slack while fighting. She always had control of at least one set of blades. And while she wanted to try fighting more than one at a time, she shouldn’t indulge.

They moved closer to the mining pit. The single Chaos Earl, a woman with six arms and a snake’s lower half rather than legs, conducted the battle from behind. In each of her hands was a different form of sword. Curved, straight, single-edged, double-edged, thrusting blade, and chopping sword. Each movement of her weapon sent arclight attacks towards Eli’Theria, which Yuriko deflected using her sunblades.

But with each defense, her sunblades were destroyed. Gritting her teeth, Yuriko pulled out another five hundred sunblades and threw them at the Chaos Earl, and it was only numbers that let her win.

Unfortunately, the clone reappeared not long after. Still, the snake woman was the only one who could destroy Yuriko’s blades. The rest were practically helpless. Because of that, the Colossus was less than a hundred paces from the mine pit and Yuriko was able to send her sunblade scouts to go down the pit.

At the bottom, the blades went down several side tunnels. They followed the twists and turns, but eventually couldn't go any farther once Yuriko hit the limits of her range. And still, there was no clear indication which tunnel they had to go…

Hmmm, no, that’s not right. The mining pit blasted out another pillar of light from the bottom. The pillar of light didn’t come from the tunnels. She pulled her blades back and had them dig at the bottom ground. The swords went through the ground as if it weren’t there.

And it opened up to a large, spherical chamber with an ostentatious double door at one end. That one was swung open, but as soon as she tried to have her blades enter, they were repelled.

But there was no doubt that what they sought to fight was right there.