“Congratulations!” Yuriko said when Gwendith entered her bedroom. The other girl gave her a tremulous smile and fell on her knees in front of Yuriko’s bed. “Gwen?”

“I…did you feel it?” Gwendith asked.

“Feel what?” Yuriko tilted her head in confusion.

“My…trials?”

“No…”

Gwendith sighed, though Yuriko couldn’t tell if it was relief or disappointment. Instead, the blonde girl got up and plopped down next to Yuriko, and leaned with her full body against her.

“You’re really bad at lying.” Gwendith sighed.

Yuriko felt her cheeks turn completely red. She knew, of course. She felt everything happen. A side effect of being their patron, something she hadn’t realised the full implication of until Gwendith began her trials. And she knew the other’s choice, too.

Her heart beat rapidly, making her even more flushed. The devotion Gwendith showed her through the trials, the choice she made…those were not light things. Those…would carry repercussions throughout the rest of her life.

Yuriko swallowed. Gwendith had bound herself completely to Yuriko, deeper even than what the Mien intended. She had pledged herself to be Yuriko’s squire, which held varied advantages and disadvantages…

For one, Gwendith would never be able to stand on the same level as Yuriko, her Anima strength always a level lower. Hmmm, at least until the God-Monarch Realm. If Yuriko reached that, and Gwendith followed after, she was sure that the relationship would change.

On the other hand, Gwendith would have a far easier time advancing to the level below Yuriko’s. Several times faster, in fact. She had not expected them to reach Actualisation so soon, after all.

Gwendith was breathing heavily, expectantly at her. Yuriko felt her face turn even redder as her thoughts wound around in circles. The other girl leaned closer until their faces were mere inches apart. Gwendith’s pale lips opened a little bit, showing the tip of her tongue poking out at the edge.

“I love you,” she breathed, making Yuriko’s breath hitch. Gwendith grinned teasingly and met her gaze. The uncertainty and doubt slowly faded from those dark blue eyes.

Their lips met, and Yuriko gasped. Gwendith took advantage of the gap and pushed inside. A chaste kiss it was not, and grew heated almost immediately. The cold air warmed as Yuriko’s control over her Anima slipped, but she barely had enough thought to slam her door shut and lock it.

Gwendith pushed her down the mattress without breaking the kiss even as her hands slithered around her. She felt the other’s Anima push against hers, demandingly, and she relaxed her hold, allowing Gwendith’s perception through.

A heady rush of pleasure and lust ran through her entire body, and from the reactions she could perceive, both through her body and through her Anima, Gwendith was the same. The kiss grew more insistent, and Yuriko surrendered to her desires.

________

Heron jogged around Faron’s Crossing the day after he completed his Actualisation. His Anima reach had expanded to three and a quarter paces, and with indications that it would expand quickly over the next few days. In the end, in the dreamscape, when the voice of the World spoke, he had been flung from it back into his body. Then, he spent the next few hours writhing in both pain and ecstasy as his body and Anima were remade.

He could actually feel where Yuriko was if he focused on the connection. Ah, she was at home, he thought. The intuition only gave him direction. He thought a little bit of emotion also bled through, but he wasn’t quite sure what she was doing to feel so exhausted.

He didn’t even know if she could get tired now unless she fought a Chaos Marquis or dozens of Chaos Earls. Either scenario was completely unlikely. Hmm, he could feel a little bit of hunger, then satisfaction there, too. Had a nice lunch, probably? The feelings were really too vague to tell, but he was sure he’d feel if she was in danger so that it would alert him.

He swore to himself, and his liege that he would be the breakwater, the shield, the protector… but he had to make sure that he was strong enough to fulfil that duty.

From what Yuriko did during her own Actualisation Stage, which was to train in extreme conditions, he probably had to do the same. The advance in Anima level had given him a bit more dexterity in his Anima manipulation. Yuriko said she achieved Animakinesis right after she advanced, so he should be able to, right?

He veered over towards a park. Over the past Seasons of war, all of the free spaces within the town had been converted to gardens. Now, they were reverting them back to leisure parks. The one he went to now was the old children’s park, which had obstacle courses and mild training areas. At his hour, right after his teaching duties, the park was empty, so he had some privacy.

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The snow had been swept from the roads, but the park was covered in a thick layer of white. He trudged towards the center where there was more than enough space. He stood in the middle and focused on his Anima.

He shivered at the cold air, before exerting his Ennoia to keep the cold winds from seeping his body heat. He wasn’t dressed too heavily, a simple sweater over his normal clothes. He figured resisting the cold would be good training.

He expanded his reach and created a bluish sphere that was just short of seven paces across. He focused on using it to form a hand. While not as stubborn as before, parts of his Anima finally yielded to his blandishment. A rough, four-fingered hand was shaped out of his Anima, and he used it to scoop snow out of the ground.

It was clumsy. He could barely get the hand to orient properly much less scoop the filthy ice out of the ground. He gritted his teeth and persevered. He could do it! While Animakinesis seemed to be much harder for him, it wasn’t as if he was planning to use it to fight. Just the sheer utility of not having to bend over to pick something up was more than worth the blood, sweat, and tears of this practice!

He must have spent an hour just to clear a space barely a space wide. Heron huffed in annoyance and a bit of exhaustion. Forcing his Anima, his very self, to contort and move as it didn’t want to, was painful and exhausting. He wondered if he was better off focusing on his strengths.

Well, he shouldn’t neglect Animakinesis. Or maybe he should use his Ennoia for that instead? No, no, Ennoia energies were a bit more finite. Animakinesis was like using his own muscles after all.

And like any other muscle, strengthening it required a cycle of practice and rest. Well, now that his Anima felt suitably strained, he should work on his body again. He eyed the cold and frozen ground, then decided to do a bit of callisthenics to work up a sweat.

After half an hour, Heron began a shadow fight. One of the strongest warriors he knew was Yuriko, but he really was no match for her. Even if she now specialized with swords that attacked at long range, her melee skills were still top-notch. He could no longer imagine any scenario where he could ever take the upper hand.

So, he cycled through several Knight-level opponents, beginning with Armsmaster Byrne. He kept his stance within the small circle empty of snow as he imagined the warrior’s greatsword and halberd combination attacks. His Anima condensed in layers, making it much tougher than the usual single layer he used before. More importantly, he found that he could merge the protective aspect of his condensed aura with the body-strengthening one. It meant that he could devote his entire Anima reach to his physique while keeping the bare minimum needed for perception.

He shifted partners several times when he detected someone sneaking close. Though they were in midlunge by the time he realised it. He ducked and spun, then flared his Anima to push off the attacker.

The shadowy blur bounced off his arm, somersaulted, then landed a couple of paces away, already while attacking.

Heron deflected the attack, his Anima created little shields that ablated the force of the attack as well as deflected it away. The shadow veered off, but before he could strike, he had to abandon his attacks against a flurry of blows.

A moment later, he recognized the attacker.

“Kassy?” The beastkin fighter, Kassy of the Sha’kal, who had feline ears and a tail in her humanoid form, was grinning fiercely at him.

“Fight against nothing, boring,” she mewled. “Fight with me?” Her Verdanian was accented badly, but he got the gist of it.

“Alright,” Heron said as he nodded. Kassy responded with a feral grin, followed by a quick swipe.

He could barely see her attack, but he managed to lean back out of the way. She followed the momentum of her strike and moved away from his perception field. It was three paces wide, but that was longer than most melee weapons.

She stopped precisely out of that range, pivoted around, and attacked from another angle. Heron got an arm up to block and her claws scraped against the inside of his arm. Ah, it didn’t penetrate his Anima armour despite how sharp those wicked claws were.

He punched two, a one-two combo that she dodged with contemptuous ease. Heron growled in annoyance while Kassy smirked.

He had been on his training route, so he didn’t bring any weapons. If there was one thing he envied about Yuriko and the beastkin was that they were always armed.

His punches, chops, kicks, and attempted grabs all failed. Kassy danced away barely out of reach. If only he could use his Animakinesis properly!

“It’s already cold, Mister Muryh,” Kassy mewled. “I don’t need you to fan the wind at me.”

The mocking lilt, the smug grin, and the ease at which she avoided his attacks grated. Sure she couldn’t really hurt him, even when she slowly tested his limits. He noticed her blows becoming stronger each time they hit.

His Anima was strong enough that none of her strikes damaged it. The force of each blow was conveyed across the entirety of his aura, then shed out into the winds, aided by his Ennoia.

But being a protector doesn’t mean all he had to do was block. A more efficient way for the guardian was to remove threats. And for that, he had to hit.

Seized by a sudden inspiration, he shaped his Anima into a spear. Near an entire pace worth of reach went into making it, and it spanned more than three paces long, with the head a wicked leaf shape. Kassy’s eyes widened in surprise, but she gladly met the challenge. Heron performed his spear arts, and the Anima weapon more than rose to the challenge.

It was flexible when it had to be, twisting to follow after Kassy’s multiple evasions, and eventually struck the beastkin woman across her body. If not for the fact that Heron didn’t want to hurt her, the spear would have pierced right through her heart.

Kassy’s eyes widened and she gasped. She landed a few paces away, and her stance relaxed. She rubbed the point where he hit, making her bosom jiggle.

“That, nice.” Kassy giggled, then stalked closer.

Heron nervously grounded the spear and watched as she circled around him.

“Hmmm, if owner don’t want, I might want,” she purred.

“Huh?” Heron mumbled.

Kassy’s claw traced across his back. “I change mind. I stay. Here.” She patted her shoulder then walked away, her movements as graceful as a house cat. She turned back just before the trees, “Had fun! See you!”

Which left Heron blinking and wondering what that was all about.