She could feel every moment, feel them extend, stretching every split second and making them feel like minutes. The fabric of reality slowly tore and a jagged void lined with something darker than black took its place. She felt her Anima split as the fabric was torn apart. Her Animakinesis was what kept her in the air, tiny hooks spread across her Anima clung to the fabric of reality to hold her in place.

The air around her, the ground underneath, the water suspended in the air, the clouds…none of that was the fabric of reality. It was more accurate to say, that those were the paint, the patterns, the buttons, the sequins…no, what she was latched onto was the canvas everything was painted on.

And the spell seeking to hurt her, perhaps to kill her, was ripping that canvas in twain. Inch by inch, the canvas ripped by a spell with an affinity almost as potent as her own. If it weren't, it would have been obliterated by her Radiant energy otherwise.

Instead, the familiar yet unknown energy cleaved through the fabric of reality even when it was under the dominion of her Anima. She could feel herself slowly being torn, for all that the rift hadn't touched her body yet. Her Anima broke and split, but she…she wasn't going to give up.

The hooks of her Anima holding her body aloft also had purchase into the fabric, and with it splitting, she pulled it close.

All at once she felt the foreign energy suffusing the rift resist the closure. The cracks slowed down, moving slightly to her perception. She was vaguely aware that she was processing everything faster than normal, and her timesense told her that less than a second had passed since the rift appeared.

The Khuni and Sha'ledras were still some distance away, though the Khuni was now within her reach. But all of her focus was towards the deadly rift as it crawled towards her side.

Her efforts to stitch the fabric close weren't working…not fast enough anyway. She was directly pushing against a structured spell with only her Anima and Intent, and it felt like she was racing a carriage on foot if she were unawakened. The lack of leverage strained her beyond belief, but it wasn't as if she had a choice. She didn't have any spells to close rifts in the first place, and the beat defence against spatial spells was to avoid them in the first place.

So what was stopping her from just avoiding it? Well, for one thing, it was too fast and too close. She'd been overconfident and had fallen for their trap. Her hyperfocus now showed her the hidden things. The Khuni and Sha'ledras had been leading her in circles, and either one or the other had managed to etch a wide spell circle around themselves. Coupled with the gate opener, most likely the very same one attacking her, she was outnumbered. Those two were at her level, probably True Magi since she'd never had trouble if they were just Advanced Magi.

Well, she couldn't do anything about the spell circle, so she returned her focus to the forming rift in space. She did keep a couple of strands of consciousness on the other two, but they weren't moving fast anyway.

Her Intent rushed out of her mind and clamped down on the fabric of reality through the medium of her Anima. As she was having trouble forcing it close, she pushed it away from her instead, at an angle. The rift shifted slightly and she timed the push to coincide with the opening movement. The spatial rend shifted slightly, enough that it wouldn't go straight into her tummy.

Gritting her teeth, she pushed herself away too, but the rift turned to follow her. It was moving faster than she could, and moment by moment, it closed.

“Gah!” she yelled as used her arm to shield herself. The edge of the rift touched her right forearm and dug into her skin. The fabric of reality tore and her skin…

Resisted.

Radiant energy suffused her body. There was far more of it inside her than her Anima, but even so, that should not have saved her flesh. The fabric of reality tore and opened up into the void between layers. Anything within the gap should have been torn with it, but her body was not. Radiant energy clashed and exploded, and should have mutually annihilated the foreign energy. And it did. But something else held her arm together.

The Mishala Mien did not allow her body to be scarred in any way. It resisted the tearing force long enough that she was able to propel herself away from it. The rift tore a gash wide enough to encompass her body, but she wasn’t there.

The flow of time returned to normal and Yuriko winced. The rift didn’t tear her arm apart, but it did dig into her skin and cut her down to her muscles. Blood dropped out of the gash, crimson red with golden sparkles glittering in the sunlight. A droplet fell down…down all the way to the ground.

A spell circle flashed into existence underneath, and a small rift opened and swallowed the droplets of blood.

Yuriko’s eyes widened in surprise, and the next thing she knew, the Khuni marksman continued shooting bullets at her, while the Sha’ledras dashed towards the still-open gate.

Yuriko swatted the bullets that came close, but most of her focus remained on the rift maker. She stemmed the blood dripping from her arm with her Animakinesis, and she pressed the flesh together. The pain, she easily ignored, and truly, the fissures into her Anima actually hurt worse than her body. She flitted to and fro, then dove to the ground and scooped up several handfuls of dirt and pebbles. She infused them with Radiance then flung them at her attackers.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

One of her Radiant pebbles clipped the Khuni’s rifle. The explosion propelled him away from the strike zone, and she grinned, only to curse a moment later when she realised that it was his explosion, not hers, that pushed him directly to the gate.

“You’re just going to run?!” She yelled vehemently.

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The Khuni man smirked at her and didn’t say a thing. The Sha’ledras didn’t even deign to look at her.

Yuriko’s temper rose to the boiling point. How dare they? How dare they run just as the battle grew more heated? The third member of the group didn’t even show themselves and they were going?

No!

“Stay.”

Yuriko’s Mien lashed out and the two men froze in mid-step. Both shivered as they tried to move, and Yuriko moved closer. Anger radiated from her Anima and the air around her crackled with heat and lightning. Sparkles of light, then tongues of flame burst at the edges of her Anima. Blood dribbled down her arm, but only the bit that remained after she closed her wound.

“Fight me.”

She hissed, and the two men turned towards her, raising their weapons in the process. Bullets and icicles flew towards her and shattered against her layered defences.

But…

Whatever it was that made her enjoy the fight…the challenge, the spirit, the zest…it wasn’t there. The bullets didn’t contain any Intent and the icicles were merely condensed water vapour. The next thing she knew, she was standing right in front of the Khuni man, in her right hand, a sunblade. The tip was pressed against the man’s neck, right at the bulge on his throat. Her gaze shifted to his, and she half expected his eyes to be dilated in fear.

“Hoh…”

His gaze was fierce, unyielding, even as he fought the throes of her Mien. He had bitten his lower lip and blood dripped down his chin, but pain wasn’t enough to fight off the Mishala Mien. Still, he should have been a True Magus, which meant his Anima strength was technically above hers. He should not have been affected so heavily.

Yuriko hesitated for a long moment, then shook her head. A strong enemy that could wound her was a rare thing to find. She either fought those so far beneath her as to be ants on the ground or those far stronger than her that she couldn’t hope to touch them. One of comparable strength…

Should she spare him and his colleague? Perhaps they could entertain her again. Ah, but she could not let them go without repercussions. They did wound her arm. Oh, but it wasn’t this man who did so.

She flicked the blade against his cheek and left a shallow slice across it. The wound bubbled and burned, and it would probably scar if left alone. Not that it should be considering the state of this region’s healing spells. It was simple payback, but she would rather leave them alive to toy with later. She returned his previous smirk and rather enjoyed hearing the grinding of his teeth.

Oh…was she turning into a bully? She blinked at the thought, shrugged and said, “Go home and come back when you’re better.”

The Khuni man shivered and spun on his heels. He flung himself towards the gate, but before he got through, Yuriko flew towards the Sha’ledras man and kicked him hard on the knee. There was a loud crunch, but the man didn’t scream. Then, she picked him up with her Animakinesis and tossed him over to the gate. It didn’t close just yet, but the edges seemed to boil with hatred.

Yuriko glared at it even as her Animakinesis erased the supporting spell circles that had boosted the spatial magus.

“Face me.”

Her words made the air ripple but the gate closed before anything could happen. Yuriko snorted and landed next to where the gate had opened. With her Anima perception, she observed everything she could, but there was nothing to be seen. The rift and the gate were tears into the fabric of reality and the only way she could tell what lay underneath was when it was disrupted. Her Anima could only perceive the air, the ground, and the water vapour, but the perception of the underlying canvas was gone.

Knowledge of that was probably what she needed to return to Rumiga, wasn’t it…?

Ah, but there was something she confirmed. The fabric here was indeed different from that in the Chaos Sea. It was thicker and firmer here, and much more difficult to penetrate. But only in one sense. It simply took more power to do so.

She held out a hand and called Fri’Avgi to hand. The artefact greatsword’s animating spirit was slumbering, but she didn’t need to use the Anima Telum’s basic usage. She infused it with her Anima and Animus, and her Radiant energy and the Ennoia of Radiant Flying Swords. She swung slowly and felt for the canvas underneath.

The runescript lines built into the artefact allowed it to catch the canvas, and with a little more force, ripped it apart. What opened up was a small gap in the void.

Not Chaos. Instead, it was the nothingness that drew in ambient Elemental energies into it rather than spilling Primordial Chaos into the material plane.

If she’d done this back home, the rift would have spilt Chaos and endangered everyone around her.

Perhaps this battle taught her something new after all. She caressed the artefact greatsword’s spine lovingly and she felt the animating spirit shiver in pleasure. Perhaps she should use Fri’Avgi to carve her way back to Rumiga…?

No, that was foolish. She didn’t know what to do or where to go. And even still, she wasn’t sure if she’d reach Rumiga in less than a hundred years that way. But it was a path to knowledge and wisdom.

She glanced at her arm. The wound had closed and the pain vanished like a soap bubble. Her foes did all that for a few droplets of her blood, did they? Or perhaps they wanted to capture her, as that elusive Magus did?

Well, she had been of two minds about letting them go, but honestly, she had felt her hold on them weakening. And even so, her Mien wasn’t pushing her to shed blood. She tapped her lips in thought, then shrugged. Come what may, and she’d always relished the challenge.

She flew back up into the air and headed back to the fortress. Ah, she wanted chocolate.