“A year and a half?” Jiro gasped.

They had been in the Chaos storm for only a couple of days! Such a huge gap, what in the Abyss?

“Establish contact with Rumiga!” he said firmly, keeping his emotions in check. Panicking now would only lead to Vagaris losing morale.

“Gemheart link, connecting,” Maruko said slowly as she sat down on the communications console. A legion’s flagship always held a minor Gemheart, used to communicate and link with planar Gemhearts. Connection wasn’t constant though, as it would leave a rather visible tether between the two points.

Such a tether could be attacked, and a resonating blow could send destructive power towards either end. By the nature of the connection, it meant that both Gemhearts would open their protection, and would be vulnerable to outside influence.

“Connection…” Maruko mumbled. “Eh, it’s not connecting.”

“What?” Jiro frowned. “Why not? Gemhearts can connect at over a thousand Waypoints away…unless…”

“Interference,” Yama Kinohara said. “Something’s happened back in Rumiga? Didn’t the Wyldling Wave just finish? It’s been less than five years, it’s highly unlikely.”

“Chaos,” Jiro said simply.

“Right, you don’t have to tell me,” Yama grumbled.

“Yet I just did,” Jiro teased.

“Shut up.”

“Connection failed,” Maruko said. “No, it was intermittent. I think…oh! A distress signal.”

The three of them exchanged glances.

“This takes priority,” Jiro said slowly.

“Are you sure? We could just send an advance force,” Yama interjected.

“Who knows if that’s enough? Anyway, nearly two years have passed, if Inquisitor Gorlyn’s team survived so far, they can wait just a little bit longer. Who knows, they might have found a way back by now. Accursed temporal storms,” Jiro swore.

“Plotting course,” Maruko said after a moment of silence.

Jiro closed his eyes and sank himself into meditation. At his level, the only way to proceed was to deepen his connection to his Ennoia. Well, that and increasing the density of his Animus. His already had the consistency and density of sand but he had to turn them into crystalline structures in order to advance. He sometimes envied Iola Brygos for her Ennoia of earth and crystals. The pattern was already there, and she simply needed to follow it.

As for him, since his Ennoia had touched on the element of water back when he was still a Knight, it had been smooth sailing until he reached Knight Commander. Afterwards, it took him decades to reach Dominus. His Ennoia Hierarchy had only reached the 3rd level, Reperta, the stage of Manifestation. While he didn’t need to reach the 4th stage, Dominus, in order to advance to Knight Imperius, it would make the process so much easier.

Heh, if he succeeded, then he would be the third Knight Imperius in the Empire. A lofty goal, and one firmly out of reach. For now.

Meditation was key. He needed to increase the resonance between himself and his Ennoia, and from there, to the ambient Chaos. He probably needed to train deeper into the Sea, where the iarvesh readings would be at twenty-five or higher, in order to make quick progress. However, the danger represented by such a dense ambient Chaos was something that he alone couldn’t bear, and anyone not at his level would be flattened way before they reached that depth.

Another way to deepen his connection was to discover and bind more Essence. Elemental Water Essence wasn’t difficult to find, but there was a limit to how much he could bind. Quality was key. The purer the essence, the better. That, however, cycled back to the problem. Purer Essence was often found nearer the source, and sources were often deeper into the Sea. If he was lucky, he’d find one at ten iarvesh, but if he wasn’t, he’d have to delve deeper, maybe to thirty or forty. And maybe even then, he’d not find what he was looking for.

Meditation to sharpen his Will. Pure Elemental Essence to empower him. And then, he needed a method to condense his Animus, which, at this stage, had already taken on the properties of his Ennoia.

There was no one path to the top. Each walker, after a certain point, must create their own way. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be only two Knight Imperi in the Empire, and maybe one or two equivalents living in the other nations.

The Empress herself was on another level. She raised the Knight Imperi herself, and they couldn’t even touch her shadow. But the Empress’ weakness, which was mostly a secret to the populace, but not to the higher echelon, was that she cannot leave her territory. Realmheart and the Core Planes. She could send a projection that had the same strength as Knight Imperi on the Stable Planes, but she couldn’t even descend into the frontiers.

“Or maybe her projection would be a lot weaker.” He mused to himself. While that was his personal opinion, there have been reports of the Empress manifesting in a few conflict planes. She then proceeded to bully their opponents and those frontier planes became Stable. Some records indicated that she fought against Primordial Manifestations, Chaos Dukes, and enemy Binders and Geist holders.

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Hmmm, those records date back to the Empire’s first millennium. No manifestations happened during the last millennium. Coincidentally, the first Knight Imperius was born during the first millennium, while the second came a thousand and three hundred or so years later. With those two holding the fort, the Empress has less reason to directly intervene.

Jiro Segawa’s meditation trance lasted for a couple of days. It was easy enough to control his metabolism so he had not been interrupted by his bodily needs. When he opened his eyes, it was Maruko bothering him over something quite annoying.

“We’re blocked by a fortified Waypoint,” she said.

“Alternate routes?”

“We’ll have to go back nearly twenty to find another way. There’s also no guarantee we won’t be drawn here or at another fortified point.”

Jiro closed his eyes and extended his senses outwards through his Domain. The way the ambient Chaos folded and spun around the Waypoint… “An Interdiction Sphere.”

Maruko’s eyebrows rose all the way to her hairline. “Which Chaos Court dares?”

“Irrelevant,” Jiro said. “Breakthrough. Send the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Cohorts.”

“Acknowledged.”

“Well, are we in for a good show?” Yama Kinohara laughed as he entered the bridge. “Do you mind if I go and enjoy myself?”

Jiro raised a doubtful eyebrow. “You sure your brittle bones can take the jump?”

“You scamp!” Yama scolded. “Who’re you calling old? You’re just as old as I am!”

“Yet, I look less than half your age,” Jiro smirked.

“Hmph, flaunt your Anima strength, will you?”

“Of course.”

“Er, Legate,” Maruko interjected. “Spellweaver Blodwen wishes to stretch his legs and join the fight.”

“Hmmm, alright. Designate 3rd Century, 4th Cohort as his guard.”

“Got it.” Maruko tapped away on her crystal tablet.

Jiro gestured with his fingers and a teapot was filled with boiling hot water. He released a bit of the heat before he added some tea leaves into a strainer. After a few minutes, he manipulated the tea into a couple of cups and floated one over to Kinohara. The elderly Inquisitor had been observing the Fysalli through the bridge’s viewscreen.

“My thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Jiro said absently as he inhaled the tea’s subtle aroma.

The Green Swan was still fully stocked, owing to the fact that subjectively, they’d just left Rumiga a few weeks ago. And since they were headed back, there was little reason to save.

As he finished his tea, the insertion teams finally approached the Fysalli, and then, began to besiege it.

_________________

Commander Frederik Holster’s heart ached. Many in his command perished when the Golden Terror went on a rampage. He still shivered whenever he recalled her artefact’s explosive might and her Sorcerous spells…

Terrible. Part of the reason they’d extended the truce so long was that he didn’t have an answer to her threat. The bunkers with the Steam Cannons had been a good idea. They could drain the enemy’s elite warriors while staying safe. But now…the Golden Terror would destroy their bunkers one by one, and there was little they could do about it. Their Animatechnology wasn’t as advanced as the Empire’s and they couldn’t create an effective Protective Dome.

Well, they could but the efficiency would be terrible. Besides, Haveena City wasn’t specialized in such things. The Steam Cannons were Ekelus City’s products, derived from relics of a bygone age.

He’d already lost one of their critical Adepts…and Nikolas is still in a fury. However, both of them knew that if they dared come out of their fortifications, the Golden Terror would reap them like wheat.

Not that the fortifications would keep her out…

For such a terrible woman, he was quite surprised when he saw her up close. She was young and she wore her emotions on her sleeve, even though she tried to hold them back. He wondered who that young Knight was, that she’d react like that. Lover?

In any case, she was at the Master level, and without elites of the same level, they would sacrifice too much to neutralize her. The goal wasn’t even to take Faron’s Crossing, that was just a bonus. As long as they kept them bottled in…

But it won’t work with their current forces. He’d asked for reinforcements the very day the Golden Terror killed Adept Hartmann.

And finally, he received a reply.

A couple of days after the beginning of the new year, his reinforcements arrived.

A cohort of Garamus warriors.

Frederik squinted at their equipment. It was vastly different from the usual chain and plate armour. Instead, it looked like articulated platemail, but these had the sheen of bronze rather than steel. Their weapons looked more positively ancient. The swords and spears were bronze.

Their commander was an Adept too, but he spotted a rather famous figure with the elite troops. Zagara of the Manifold Blades. A Master.

Lyra Henders, the commander, approached him, carrying a command packet.

“You are relieved of command,” she said brusquely, “and you are to assist in the campaign. Here is the joint council’s dispatch.”

Frederik nodded solemnly and returned a salute.

“I acknowledge.”

His tone was as impassive as he could make it. He didn’t know whether to be relieved that things were no longer in his hands or angry at the black mark on his record.

The Golden Terror.

He was happy to be relieved. Yup.

As he headed towards his quarters to peruse the dispatch, his eyes suddenly caught sight of another unit entering the encampment. He froze at the sight. Chaos Lords. Barons. Two dozen of the creatures.

But the only thing that betrayed their nature was their varied attire, and the motes of ambient Chaos lingering across their hands. Otherwise, they looked disturbingly human.

___________

Under Rumiga’s southern ocean, the only such body within the plane, cracks formed within the plane’s structure. Black cracks spidered from a point and spread slowly. The Veil would have resisted it, but the thing pushing its way through knew how to take advantage of how a Veil circulates its power.

Slowly, inch by inch, a rift opened, and the thing slipped through.

Fish and assorted sea life flitted away from the thing’s presence. The water didn’t bother it, and neither did the weight of the water from nearly a longstride deep. Instead, it swam towards the surface easily.

Long tentacles, rubbery skin, an enormous central eye, and two eye stalks. But the skin was blackened, and there were cracks that oozed black blood. When the droplets mixed with the ocean water, a strange miasma was produced. It floated as bubbles towards the surface, and as soon as it breached through the waves, it turned into a dark mist.

When the creature surfaced, it glared to the skies. Even though storm clouds covered the heavens, the creature’s gaze lingered on the Radiant Sun.

“I. Smell it. Here. Ancient’s blood. Young. Weak,” it muttered to itself. “Vengeance. Emerys. Will. be pleased. To reclaim. A. Portion of what it. Lost.” Then it hissed in pain. “Passage blocked. Must recover.”

It sank back underneath the waves and slowly made its way to the shore.