Gwendith’s body was flushed with Animus as it cycled in a pattern that boosted her physique, maintained her endurance, and improved her body at the same time. Boost Physique was an old technique that she rarely used now, at least until Yuriko tweaked it to help maintain and increase her fitness levels. Heron did the same thing, but he didn’t need to ask since his Anima did it naturally.
Animus was consumed at the rate of ten lumens per minute, which was a prodigious amount considering how slow Animus regenerated here in Bresia. Her frost scale Animus armour allowed her to hold far more lumens than her body allowed, but it was slowly depleting as she used it up. Part of her consciousness was focused on converting ambient Cold energy into Animus, and she was somewhat startled to realise that it didn’t take much concentration to do so.
The process she created to convert the Elemental energy into Animus was a bit simple. She inhaled it, allowed it to percolate in her lungs, which changed it to Heat as she exhaled. She held onto her exhalation with her Intent and Anima, allowing it to neutralise into something in the middle of Heat and Cold, a balance point between the two where a single nudge could tip it either way, then, she pulled it back into herself and straight into her Animus core. That act converted the neutral energy into Animus simply because that potential to turn into either form of energy was Chaos potential. Not true ambient Chaos of course, but enough of it to allow her body to metabolise it into Animus.
The conversion process was just as fast as Animus Respiration back home, in Equilibrium, which meant it would take eight hours to refill her reserves. Thankfully, her frost scale reserves also took in the excess exhalation and converted it to more Animus scales, so she was regenerating more than her Boost Physique spell consumed.
They were travelling at a good pace. The Vallavega Pass wasn’t straightforward since it zigged and zagged, rose and fell, and sometimes doubled back. There were ravines and canyons that the road had to skirt around which added longstrides to their journey, but if they saw the road across, Heron used his Ennoia of the Winds to bring them across one at a time. Yes, that lucky rotter could fly, though not in the same way as Yuriko could. He used his Ennoia to form solid air platforms to jump off from.
Hmm, come to think of it, there were spells that allowed flight, right? She didn’t know them, though, so too bad. But then again, she was sure the basic levitation and flight spells would be slower than running.
At the rate they were going, they crossed a league every three minutes or so. Twenty leagues every hour, and five hours to cross a hundred. The path increased it to double the distance, so ten hours to get to the other side of the Kerromere mountains.
If they kept their current pace anyway.
“We’ll miss everything if we keep this pace,” Heron said.
“I’m burning Animus as fast as I can regenerate it,” Gwendith admitted. Saki didn’t even say anything, since her usage required her to be hidden in the Shadows to move as fast as the rest of them. Devotee had no such trouble and was actually whistling idly as they ran.
“Tsk. Ten hours then. Maybe we can shave a few leagues off…” Heron muttered. The Vallavega Pass was well-mapped and documented, and there was really only one route. “Yes, we can cut a dozen leagues if we jump through the Great Divide…”
“That canyon’s a full league across,” Gwendith said drily.
“If we slow down after we cross, I can regenerate the excess Animus spent,” Heron said.
“Fair enough.”
And so they ran and ran. Dusk came and they were only halfway across the mountains, but then, the skies darkened and snow started to fall. The path was now covered in a thick blanket of snow, and underneath it was a layer of slippery ice.
Devotee’s burning hair flared up and he took the lead. Snow melted and turned to steam before it could touch his body, as did the frost underneath. He was several paces ahead, and Gwendith controlled the Heat away from their path.
They reached the Great Divide amidst a snow flurry, but Heron was undeterred. He took the lead from Devotee and leapt across the threshold. He landed on a wide hexagon of solidified air, which was just big enough to support a single person. “Come on!” He yelled as he leapt off that block and landed on another one. Unlike the past few times he did that, the hexagons remained and Gwendith landed on it easily.
She half expected it to be slippery considering how smooth the surface looked, but the hexagon was slightly curved inwards so her boot slid towards the centre and stayed there rather than slip off.
She was easily able to jump off to the next platform. Saki and Devotee followed behind her and after Devotee’s leap, the hexagon dispersed. As they leapt across the canyon, Gwendith looked down towards the floor. They were roughly a couple of longstrides above the hills, and the bottom of the canyon was just a normal valley. Really, they could have walked through it, right?
Except the Elemental mists were thick down there, and the canopy concealed the forest floor. She saw a wide river wind across the floor, and there was a strong breeze that rustled the leaves. The melody of the forest reached up towards them, and Gwendith couldn’t help but listen. It was soothing…sleepy…
“Gwen!” Heron yelled, his voice amplified by his Ennoia of the Winds. Gwendith jolted and realised she had stopped moving.
“What…?”
“We have to keep going!” Heron yelled. “You stood there for five minutes, frozen stiff.”
“What was that?”
“Who knows? Just get going.”
Gwendith glanced behind her and found that Saki had let her shadows recede. Devotee looked concerned, but ultimately, bored.
Shrugging to herself, and suppressing the terrified shiver running down her spine, she continued jumping across the platforms. Heron angled the path a bit north, and by the time they crossed the canyon, they landed right where the road broke away from the edge.
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The evening skies made the running a bit treacherous, but they persevered. But another hour later, the skies darkened completely and lightning fell from the skies, forcing them to seek shelter underneath an overhang.
___________
The battle ebbed and flowed, raging at one moment, and cooled down to embers at another. Yuriko continued to feed her Radiant energy into the barrier for hours now, and the other barrier Magi rotated their schedule around her. An advantage of being connected to the barrier device was that she was able to project her perception through the dome as if the edge was the start of her range. It hadn’t happened immediately but over those hours. It was similar to how she projected her Anima through Eli’Theria, come to think of it.
One of the special Steeld units crashed against an Earth Golem, but the majority of the extra large Steelds kept their distance and poured bullets and spells against their counterpart. Yuriko watched the byplay with keen interest, noting how the Earth Golems’ outer skin rippled as the bullets struck home, only for the moving earth to shift out of the way. The bullets were composed of metal, though she wasn’t sure what kind. It was softer than iron or steel but was a bit heavier. They certainly transferred kinetic energy quite well. However, she saw those bullets didn’t have any runescript formations enhancing them, and the majority of the Elemental energy used in firearms was focused on propulsion, resiliency, and accuracy. Very little, other than propulsion, went into making the bullets hit harder. Still, firearm bullets could match the speed she threw her pebbles or iron pellets, and she knew those things packed a punch even without enhancing them with Animus.
She couldn’t really contain her curiosity and interest when it came to the guns, considering they looked like Plasma Casters. The operation was a bit different though, since guns used physical bullets which were affected by the pull of the ground, unlike plasma bolts. But then, the latter required Animus to remain in its shape, and bullets did not. Essentially, firearms didn’t spend anything but materiel, while Plasma Casters and Lancets used up someone’s reserves. If all things were equal, firearms should have been the weapon of choice for the Empire. And yet, Chaos Lords, Wyldlings, and other creatures that threatened home had a Protective Field that required Animus to penetrate, and it was easier and more efficient to infuse plasma than solid objects.
Well, it only meant that a single weapon would not triumph over every situation. Hmmm, just like there was no one technique or skill that can overcome everything…
Right?
Yuriko frowned as she felt something within rebel against that sentiment. All things being equal, that would be true but since when would things always be fair?
She felt herself at the cusp of a realisation, but absent experiences…they slowly slipped away no matter how she tried to grasp it. It left her with only one thought and desire, however.
Fight.
Strive and face conflict, in the battlefield and other situations. Come out at the top, and find the Truth.
So be it.
Yuriko sighed as the fabric of reality around her eased from its sudden constriction. The Magi around her ignored what happened, or far more likely, they didn’t notice. She felt the weight of someone’s regard, however, and it didn’t take her long to figure out it was the Field Marshal. Nothing else came of it, and the battle continued with its flow.
“Professor Davar, open the barrier to let a Sending through,” Field Marshal Garcia said.
Yuriko sent her Intent into the device, found the toggles to do what he asked, and readied herself to open it. “At your convenience.”
“Now, please.”
Yuriko did so, and the spell went through. Except and interception field blocked it before it could go past.
“Tsk.”
Yuriko shrugged and wondered how Heron’s Sending reached her while the Field Marshal’s was unable to pass. “Do you need me to do it?” Yuriko asked.
“You don’t have a connection with the Grand Magi.”
“I’ve met Dean Varro of Niria.”
“Oh, then, please.” A moment later, a scroll flew towards her from the command centre. She looked at the contents and frowned. The words and numbers were arranged in a nonsense pattern, and…well…the entire thing was gibberish.
“Er…”
“It’s encrypted in code,” the Field Marshal said. His face was impassive but Yuriko noticed the corner of his lips curl in amusement.
“Right.” Yuriko began casting the Sending spell, then recited the message in the scrol verbatim. She stumbled a bit, and had to abort and recast the spell when she realised she mixed up the order. The words were swimming. It didn’t help that the entire thing was a single line without any breaks or spaces…
Somehow, she struggled through speaking the line and managed to complete the spell, but the moment the construct left the dome, it was torn apart.
“Goddess’ saggy melons,” Field Marshal Garcia cursed. Yuriko blinked and wondered which goddess he was speaking about, and if those goddesses were Ascended beings or simply figments of the collective imagination given form by ambient Elemental energy…
If it was the former, retribution would be swift, but the curse words seemed prevalent. She’d certainly heard them uttered more than once.
Lighting fell like rain and struck the barriers. Yuriko winced at the feedback, and she felt the Elemental energy seep into the channels. Her Radiant energy consumed the Lightning without issue…but there was so much lightning blasting into the dome that the Radiant couldn’t convert it fast enough.
The next thing she knew, the dome had several holes in it, and bolts of lightning struck down on the buildings. Outside, the skies were covered in dark clouds that stretched out as far as the eye could see.