The pressure bearing down on Lukas forced him to his knees. But as bad as it was to him, he knew that it was worse for Kiruna. He forced his head to turn, so he could look at his little sister. She lay on her belly, hands flat beside her head, facing away from him.

She had stopped trembling.

“Some...body…close…the…door…” he gasped.

Aengus growled from a few paces away.

“Deploy…your Field!” he yelled. “Cover your sister!”

Silvery light covered the red-headed boy’s frame, though as soon as it flared up, it pressed close to his skin. In the end, there was barely any glow at all. Still, it seemed to be enough to let the older boy move, if only barely.

Whimpering and cries filled the small chamber, packed as it was with warm bodies. Lukas pushed everything away and focused on what he must do.

After his Atavism Ritual, he had been judged too lacking for further development. His parents had already died by then. The two of them had been living on what he could scrounge up and from the grace of the Charity Kitchens that gave barely enough sustenance to stave off starvation.

The barest minimum of the Ritual had been available to any of the Empire’s citizens, in fact, it was mandated by Imperial Law. However, the quality of the catalyst depended on how much wealth could be spent.

Lukas’ Ritual had barely been enough to Awaken him, given he had taken a single drop of the catalyst. His Animus reserves had been a pittance, barely more than what an unawakened noble child would have.

He was judged to be too deficient to waste time on training, though of course, he could still have sought it. If he had the silver crowns to spend, anyway. Now, who would have that much to spend on training if it could have been spent on the catalyst?

It was a vicious cycle that did its best to pull him to the depths and drown him.

He didn’t even know how to perform the most basic technique of Empowered Strike until it was taught to him by the Council’s instructors. They had barely touched on the next technique when the storm warning sounded and he didn’t think he would need it, after all.

The Chaos was far away from the common man, despite the fact that they were in the vicinity of a Chaos channel. It was far more guarded than anything else as it was a passageway from this plane to their neighbours. It was also a shortcut for the denizens of the beyond.

He gathered his will, pulling as much Animus as he could safely control--five lumens worth--and compressed it into a ball in front of his heart. He needed to fill it with his Intent, but worry and concern for Kiruna warred with his concentration.

Aengus was moving at a snail’s pace and the rate he was going, it would take him at least ten minutes to get to the door and shut it. Lukas couldn’t see any who could help them, in fact, the majority of the people inside were helplessly laid out.

“Ki...ru...na…!”

“Bro…ther…”

Fear galvanized into anger. Why were they in this situation? They should have just stayed outside! The Lower Ring was ironically safer than the undermountain, from a certain point of view.

Sure, the torrential rain and the brutal winds could topple their house, and sure, the low lying areas could flood. But at least the Chaos winds wouldn’t scour them. It wouldn’t overwhelm their Anima and change them from within.

Nine out of ten unawakened children exposed to a storm would die. And that was a ‘normal’ Chaos storm. This one looked and felt like a once in a century abomination.

“Practice your Animus manipulation during the storm,” the masked instructor had said. She still hadn't given her name to her students. They had no need for it, she had declared. “It will be easier to work with your Animus when the ambient Chaos is higher, and you might be able to naturally expand your reserves.”

Of course, the rate at which the ambient Chaos increased at the Lower Ring was, well, low. It was better in the tunnels nearer the barrier. But too close and it would be too much. The Council had control of several caverns under the mountain, far from the control of the Legion Agminis or the nobles' private forces.

The barrier mountains, the Walls of Rumiga, were crisscrossed with leagues of tunnels and caverns, going even deeper than the foot of the mountain and deep into the earth. Much of it was mined. Early pioneers from Delovine Plane sought jade, gold, silver, iron, and other minerals.

Imperial Jade, Imperial Jadeite were the highest price, sought even by the ever-hungry maw of the Imperial Capital. Both minerals were important to Animatech, though why it was so, Lukas didn’t know. Anything that had to do with coins was something that had been taught by his father.

The jadeite mines had been depleted a century since, and the two dukes were desperate to find a new deposit. Active mining had moved further north, hence the undermountain had remained mostly abandoned, save for a token guard to protect the planar capital from Wyldling incursions.

The Assembly of Freethinkers, the Council’s predecessor, had used the mine tunnels as their havens and hideouts and now Lukas and the others were doing the same thing. Which meant that the runescript protections of the place weren't as powerful as those in a proper shelter.

“My…greed…brought this!” Lukas growled. “I will not let this happen!”

Out of the fires of his anger came the focus he needed. He burned his Intent into the bundle of Animus he had squeezed together and once it was properly saturated, he pushed it out.

Orange light covered his form and with a grunt, he channelled it over around his sister. He felt the ambient Chaos press down on his Field, seeking to push it back into his Anima. The Chaos winds seemed to gather around him, eroding his light.

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But he would not be denied. He reached for his sister, the glow spreading from his hand to cover her head. He could barely move and it was as if a big fat man sat on his shoulders. He strained and struggled, feeling his ligaments pop in protest.

His limbs screamed in tortured pain but he ignored it all. Inch by inch, he moved closer to her, then he covered her body with his. At the same time, he pushed out his Animus to cover the rest of Kiruna’s body.

“Kiru! Wake up, Kiru!” He yelled.

He couldn’t feel her moving, not even to breathe.

“Kiru!” he choked, tears threatening to flood out of his eyes. Already, he could barely see out of the misty haze of his eyes. “Kiru!”

With a muted groan, Kiruna twitched. “Brother…?”

“Kiru!’

“You’re…crushing me!”

With another gasp, Lukas hugged his sister. Her warmth penetrated his cold skin and he wept openly.

“You’re alright…” he sobbed.

“I’m…I feel strange,” she murmured.

“Hush, now. Rest.”

“Alright.” Kiruna snuggled into his arms.

The next moment, the pressure disappeared with the slamming of the door. Lukas looked up to Aengus' triumphant roar.

“Thank the Ancestors!” Lukas murmured. “Keep us safe for the rest of the storm!”

It was just the beginning, and already, they had been put in so much danger. They should have stayed back at home.

_______

The Breaker of Bonds waited with bated breath while a bolt of plasma the size of a swarmling careened out from the imperials’ barricade and fell with laughable slowness at his position. Around him, fodder in the form of nascent dwellers charged to their doom.

The blast, either from a Plasma Carronade or an equally powerful Knight, splashed down a dozen paces from his position. He casually swiped his silk wrapped fist in front of his face to wave away the wafting smoke.

“How much longer?” Skyborn Calamity of Winds growled behind him. The Asheron Baron, despite his grand-sounding sobriquet, was barely holding on against the continuous bombardment from the Imperial Knights arrayed against them.

“Ah, Calamity, the real question is how much longer can you hold the winds?”

“Three hours. The planar rejection is growing stronger by the second.”

Breaker held out two of his four arms, palms facing together and drew from his Essence Well. Chaos bubbled on his palm, forming a small ball a couple of inches wide. The interior was dark, an all-devouring shadow, while a thin coating of red contained it.

The imperials were at least fifty paces away, holding up behind a hastily raised barricade. A minute ago, reinforcements had come from about the gap, dropping from the sky fast enough that he barely caught a glimpse. Then, he could feel the thin Chaos of this place gathering at the other end. If not for the storm renewing the density of Chaos particles, he and his ally would have long started suffocating.

Well, there was only one purpose to this raid, two if he counted the Asheron Court’s eternal purpose, but the first supported the latter. One did not waste time sharpening the knife before cutting the flesh.

He could feel his brethren underneath. In the shadowy bowels of the mountain, seeking promising seeds to fuel the growth of the Asheron cause.

He held out his palm to face the barricade and willed the ball of darkness to fly. It shot out fast enough to bend the winds around it, whistling its destructive tune. The defenders didn’t have time to react and it hit the barricade. Almost at once, the point of contact up to several paces on either side of it crumbled into dust and revealed…

A metal human female?

She grinned at him, ambient Chaos forming small vortices around her and with speed he could barely track, she propelled herself across the warzone, clawed hands held widely at the side.

“Calamity!” Breaker yelled while he drew a halberd from within his Anima and swung it at the Knight, barely timing it to strike as she came close. Except the metal woman dug her tail into the ground and pulled herself to a halt, her claws swinging in front, leaving a glowing afterimage, though ultimately short of striking him.

Or so he thought.

The afterimage turned out to be a rift in the planar fabric. It widened into a tear, and hundreds of obsidian folded cranes burst out.

“Graaah!”

Each wing that sliced past his silk fabrics cut through his skin, drawing bluish blood. The brunt of the attack wasn’t aimed at him, however, and the flock spread out to his side, catching the wailing fodder, little swarmlings, huge Antids, surfaced Burrowers, and the odd demihuman Hunters. Each one was cut to shreds.

Calamity’s torso bulged and he roared, the force of his breath blew the cranes away, though it parted around Breaker. But the metal woman wasn’t done. Out of the corner of his eyes, he found her crouched and coiled like a spring. The next moment, a powerful kick sent Breaker flying.

Just as his feet left the solid ground, his lower right hand that had been hidden behind his back pointed a finger and a line of darklight sprung from the tip of his nail.

Skrriicttt!

“Urk!” The metal woman grunted as a tiny bit of his strike penetrated past her skin and drew rust-coloured blood.

Swoosh!

A beam of searing light blinded the Breaker, coming from another human woman who was still back at the barricade but was steadily approaching. The metal one spun on her heels and threw out a kick, which he blocked by crossing his right arms. The force propelled him back, but that was fine.

Balls of corrosive light gathered on his left palms and he threw one at each of the women. The metal one knocked it away with the back of her fist, somehow managing to do so without rupturing it. The other one simply wasn’t where he aimed.

Calamity roared again. For such a huge fellow, the other Asheroni didn’t like fighting up close.

‘You’d have to do better than that, boy!’ he thought at the other sardonically.

Both of the women were focused on him, the metal one blocking whatever he threw at her, and the other one burning holes into his skin and flesh. The sizzling scent of burning meat, despite being his own, made his mouth water.

Neither of them fully committed to an attack and they would have to do that in order to really hurt him. Still, he leapt back to be closer to Calamity. The other noble grunted and then froze what moisture he could gather into a long dagger.

The metal woman loped just out of reach, a feral grin on her face. Sparks flew from where her fingers rubbed against each other. There were still a couple of vortices around her and one of them slowly changed shape.

“You are traitors,” Breaker said abruptly.

The metal woman blinked, squinted her eyes at him and said, “Hardly true, Chaos Lord, there can be no treachery where there was no allegiance.”

“No, your kind broke oaths.”

“Long ago maybe, performed by those long since dead.”

“Sins unresolved bind those who follow.”

“Foolish sentiment.” The vortex gathered around the metal woman’s hand and swiftly changed to a blue flame.

“Tsk.” He clicked her tongue. Verbal spars had been deflected and if she had fallen to them, he would have broken her. Instead, he threw up a wall of darklight to ward off the woman’s assault.

Except, it didn’t come. The next thing he knew, she and the other woman had retreated in the blink of an eye.

And then, it rained fire.

“Accursed mortals!” he howled as he hastily beat a retreat, dragging the Skyborn Calamity of Winds’ Anima with him. The other’s corpus had fallen and if he didn’t make it out of this hole, he risked permanent dissolution.

Whose idea was it to conduct this raid anyway?

All wasn’t lost, yet. He and the Calamity were only two. There were others who had joined and perhaps one of them succeeded.

As he sunk his body through the broken planar barrier, he found himself in a mobile Fysalli where a small host of the Asheron horde waited. Another noble, a woman with spider-like limbs, The Spinner of Wisps, knelt beside a dozen cocoons the size of a man.

“This little?” Breaker growled.

“Better than nothing,” Spinner replied coolly, her voice accentuated with clicking noises. “There’s one more left, then we go. Ah, is that Calamity? Foolish sop, he shouldn’t have strayed to the front.”

“He has courage,” Breaker shrugged, kneeling beside a wiggling cocoon and caressing it. “Don’t worry, moppet, soon, your woes will end.”

“And new tribulations await.” Spinner cackled.