‘Wait! What did you mean, I want to jump Reinhardt’s bones?’ Yuriko furiously thought to Damien. ‘Damien!’

What? You aren’t thinking about it? Why else would you be so flirty and touchy with him?

‘What do you mean flirty?’

Not only did you let him carry you in his arms but you also willingly got on his back and took a nap. A supreme gesture of trust, especially towards someone you just recently met. Hie hie. I pity your other boyfriends.

‘I’m, er–’ Yuriko spluttered.

She didn’t mean anything by it, Chaos burn the infuriating voice in her head! And why was she getting so flustered anyway? She took a deep calming breath and recognized the man’s attempt at evasion.

She glanced at Reinhardt who had an intense look on his face. His somewhat childish features reminded Yuriko of Rami so much that she felt her heart twinge. Her youngest brother also had that kind of intense focus especially while he weeded the garden or trimmed the hedges into aesthetic figures. Sometimes he would sculpt a bush into geometric patterns, pyramids and cubes, while at others, he tried his hand at human figures. He wasn’t that good yet though, and she remembered one time he showed her a blob and said that it was supposed to be her.

With a sigh, Yuriko returned to her watch. She didn’t know when they would encounter the blood warriors again, and now that they knew killing them would only lead to more trouble, she wondered how they would fend them off. They could always run away, of course, and let the creatures look for other prey.

A bit more worrisome was the fact that she didn’t know how powerful a blood warrior was until they had already crossed weapons. The first wave of them was pathetically weak but since they absorbed the strength of the defeated, that didn’t last long. Only, how many warriors had that last one devoured to grow strong enough to match her? And how many warriors rose when the Blood Moon appeared?

There weren’t any within sight now, but surely, they would run into the stronger versions soon enough.

She squinted and scrubbed at her eyes. The reddish hue was making her eyes water, and also made her a bit more irritable. The settlement slowly grew larger as they closed in on it. It was practically identical to Euphoril and if she didn’t know any better, she would have assumed that they had gotten turned around. Only the fact that several towns were in sight assured her of it. For that matter, she didn’t know if one of the towns behind was Euphoril. It didn’t have any banners or sigils on display, and the Roots of each mountain may not be identical but she still couldn’t distinguish them.

Huh? What was that purple light?

It flashed in the distance, just a bit off from straight. The colour was out of place but also somewhat familiar.

“Yuriko?” Reinhardt asked when she turned to head towards the purple light. “Ah, what’s that?”

“Feels familiar,” Yuriko said. “I want to see.”

“Is this really the time to be adventurous?” Shara pointedly asked. “Shouldn’t we head straight to the town instead? Your companion’s wellbeing relies on it.”

“If I’m right,” Yuriko said, “that purple light comes from my cousins’ Animus.” It was indeed the shade of purple that the Davar’s Animus had in common. Da had it, and so did her elder brothers. Riley had the same shade, while Aidan’s was a bit lighter.

When she saw the second shade of purple, she became absolutely certain.

“Let’s hurry!”

She broke into a sprint, channelling her Animus into Boost. Her stride ate away at the paces, and in less than a minute, the others were already nearly a couple hundred paces behind her. She flared her Anima as wide as she could, hoping that Riley and Aidan would see it and head towards her. It also acted as a beacon for Reinhardt and the others.

She took it as a sign that her cousins saw her Anima when the flashes of purple seemed to move towards her. A couple of minutes later, she could finally see them.

Riley and Aidan walked toward her direction while the younger brother blasted purple bolts of superheated plasma at blood warriors several dozen paces away. She saw Aidan, surrounded by five orbs of plasma, point excitedly at her.

She couldn’t keep the grin from her face and she waved vigorously back. Then, recalling her companions, she turned around only to see them running from another group of blood warriors.

“Burning Moon!” she muttered as she spun on her heels.

She was practically filled with Radiant energy and had been so for quite a while. It was an odd change since there was no sun out here, and the last time she hadn’t seen it for days, the energy just leaked out of her. Perhaps because she had basically completed Radiant Refinement? She noticed the difference in her Anima right after she arrived in the Pure Lands.

Either way, she was reluctant to summon Fri’Avgi since she felt that the artefact was still cleansing her Anima, and plain Animus blades didn’t work too well against the denizens of the plane. So, she formed a sunblade. It still took a while to form one, nearly a minute, but it felt marginally easier now.

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The glow of her golden blade cast a harsh light, and it drew the blood warriors like flies to honey. The ones chasing Reinhardt and the others broke off and headed directly to her. From the speed of their gait, and the number, these were probably stronger than the initial warriors but less so than the two powerhouses that almost did her in.

She met the first warrior’s blow with her sunblade, and it sheared through its weapon as though it were made of paper. Then the blade bit into the torso, and the warrior…burst to flame and burned down to ashes.

She froze in surprise but forced herself to move when the next one nearly skewered her with a spear. A single touch of her sunblade disintegrated the weapon and the warrior soon after. She should have used her Radiant energy! She wouldn’t have had to endure the attack on her Anima otherwise.

Shaking her head, she massacred the remaining warriors. They all turned to ash, not puddles, and there was no returning from that. Not immediately anyway. Maybe they would return to life once the next Blood Moon came, but hopefully, she and the others would be long gone by then.

“Oh, good work!” Reinhardt huffed as he staggered to a halt. His bodyguards looked fine, while Shara was red in the face. Tiernan was still unconscious across the bigger man’s shoulders.

“Yuriko!”

Riley and Aidan came close enough to be in earshot and Yuriko couldn’t help but grin. Riley rushed up to her and enfolded her in a bear hug, squeezing as hard as he could. Aidan patted her shoulder and grinned. Then both of them stared at Reinhardt, Shara, and the bodyguards, with suddenly blank expressions. Then they saw the unconscious Tiernan.

Aidan looked at Yuriko first, however, Riley blew up.

“What happened to him?” He yelled even as he rushed up to Devion, who reared back in surprise. “Hey! Answer.” Purple Animus blazed in his eyes, and the edges of his Protective Field grew jagged.

“Hey! Back off!” Reinhardt yelled as he interposed himself between Devion and Riley. “Who are you even?”

“Calm down,” Aidan grunted. “Yuri? Who are these people, and what happened to Cadet Officer Hersal?”

Reinhardt's gaze shifted from Riley to Yuriko, then to Aidan before settling back to her.

“Uh, right.” Yuriko coughed into her hand. She stabbed her sunblade into the stone, “This is Prince Reinhardt Nostra of the Isger Republic, along with Devion Falsi and Michi Okita, his bodyguards. Shara Demas is his attendant. Reinhardt, these two are my cousins, Riley and Aidan Davar, also merchant marines of the Ebon Horizon.” She paused while the prince eyed the two oddly, his gaze shifting from them to her a couple of times before he shrugged.

As for Riley, he looked at Reinhardt and his lips curled into a sneer. Aidan just sighed.

“Tiernan just fell unconscious when the Blood Moon came up. Well, he started foaming at the mouth, but, er, Miss Demas gave aid. Otherwise, I don’t know what would have happened to him.”

“He just collapsed?” Aidan asked. “Well, let’s return quickly to the Horizon.”

He put away his Plasma Lancet and made to carry the boy. Devion hesitated and looked at the prince.

“Ah, pardon,” Reinhardt interrupted. “Yuriko rescued us from certain death, and I’ve tried to repay her. But allow us to keep carrying the boy. And we would like to ask for passage out of this fell plane. We would pay for passage, of course.”

“Ah, I almost died fighting the blood warriors,” Yuriko said, then continued hurriedly when Riley and Aidan’s expressions twisted. “They kept me safe.”

“I’m sure,” Riley said with a doubtful tone.

“Well, then, let’s all return to the Ebon Horizon,” Aidan said, “but it’s up to the captain to decide if passage will be allowed. You’re from the Coalition of Independent Planes aren’t you?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Hmph.” Aidan snorted. “I don’t recall if Isger is friendly to the Empire.”

“It’s not. We were neutral, but since Isger’s planes are close to the border, that’s a rather thin claim.” Reinhardt sighed then held up his hands to interrupt Aidan, “But, there’s been a recent coup and I’m looking for asylum.”

“A coup?” Yuriko blinked.

“Yes,” Reinhardt gave her an apologetic look.

Yuriko just shrugged. She didn’t really need to know that anyway.

“Anyway, I’m willing to give, uhm, information, to the Empire if they will protect me from my murderous cousin.”

Aidan hummed while Riley shrugged and moved next to Yuriko.

“I still can’t say if the captain will help you, but I suppose your willingness to betray your country might help.”

Reinhardt winced while Shara looked about to slap Aidan. “My country...haah, well, I was betrayed first.”

“Very well. Let us go.”

“It’s good that you’re safe, Yuri.” Riley said, while giving her shoulder a squeeze, “Aunt Layla and the captain panicked when they saw the hole in the hull and realized you were missing. I was pretty sure you’d be fine. You survived worse before.”

Yuriko grinned. “Well, thanks for believing in me.”

“Well, a monster like y-, ahem,” Riley coughed while her eyes narrowed, “Well, the Horizon isn’t in good shape either. We left the ship before the Blood Moon.”

“How did you find me?” Yuriko asked curiously.

Riley shrugged, “You left clothes and other belongings in the Horizon. Aunt Layla made this.” He reached into his hip satchel and pulled out a glass sphere. There was a cloth fragment inside, and a needle with the tip pointed at her. When Riley moved the sphere, the needle swivelled to keep pointing at her.

“You mean as long as someone has my stuff they can find me?” Yuriko yelped.

“Yup.” Riley grinned. “A Sorcerer or a Spellweaver can.”

Yuriko hummed, “I suppose it helps find people.”

“I have to keep feeding this Animus.” Riley shrugged, “if it goes empty, then it breaks. But since we’ve found you anyway.” He pulled his Animus from the device and the glass grew opaque. He returned it to his hip satchel, grabbed his Plasma Lancet from its sling, aimed to the right and fired

The bolt smashed into a blood warrior, who attempted to dodge, but Riley’s bolt curved ever so slightly such that it still hit a glancing blow. Or rather, it would have been a glancing blow but the bolt splashed across the body and started to burn and melt it. Riley’s second bolt caught it in the middle of the torso and the blood warrior went down.

The blood puddle that remained slowly sank through the ground without an attempt to get to her cousin. It was too far away.

They marched off, a bit to the left of their original bearing. Every now and then, Riley would lift the Caster up and shoot one of the blood warriors that came too close. He did methodical work, though he always had a smirk as he gave the killing blow. Yuriko sighed and wished she still had her Plasma Caster.

By the time her sunblade dissipated, they were near a mountain. It was at the settlement they were headed towards but the brothers kept well away from the walled town. At least, that was the intention.

The gates were thrown open and robed figures marched out of it, each one carrying polearms or bows. They mowed through the few blood warriors loitering around and marched towards Yuriko and the others. All of them had the hoods of their robes over their heads, concealing their faces. But for some reason, a crimson light burned behind their eyes. That was the only thing visible beneath the hoods.

Crimson eyes staring out, burning with angry flame.