It didn't take long for Orrin and Krystal to harvest the Hunter's Chaos shards. There were a couple of them, one in the chest where its heart was and the other was in its guts. A total of ten HiJin for the entire harvest.
Yuriko recovered her Plasma Caster from the tree and cleaned her remaining blade after spending several minutes recovering from her exhaustion. The side-blade that snapped was regrettably her own; the one she borrowed from the Watchtower had either been tougher or she had been more careful in its use.
With a sigh, she recovered the broken blade out of the Hunter's side, cleaned it as well as she could, and put it in its sheath along with the hilt. She secured both with some rope and hung them on her backpack.
"You really should have waited," Heron grumbled once they were on their way back to the village ruin.
"It would have found Krystal if I didn't attack."
"No, it wouldn't have," Krystal piped in. "Not easily anyway."
"I didn't want to risk it."
"So instead you risked your life by challenging it alone?" Krystal said acerbically.
"I saw no other choice," Yuriko said defensively. "Anyway, it's already done. Let's focus on what we have to do."
"This isn't the end of it," Krystal said threateningly.
Yuriko just sighed.
It didn't take all that long for them to return to camp, despite having to slow down. The first order of business after getting back to camp was skinning and butchering the animals Krystal caught. The Hunter's presence and their battle seemed to have panicked most of the little critters into staying in their lairs or burrows. As a result, Krystal's snares only yielded two rabbits though she did find more wild vegetables.
Yuriko helped with the prep work while the boys decided to fish for dinner.
"We'll call Shillogu after lunch," Yuriko decided while she was chopping the tubers and dicing the mushrooms for the stew.
Krystal froze for a second before she answered. "Are you sure? You don't look so good."
"I just need a couple hours of rest, along with food. I didn't use up much of my Animus, so I'm fine. I'll run Recovery later."
The only thing left to do after everything was in the stew pot was wait for it to be done. That and feeding the fire and making sure it neither too strong nor too weak. Stirring the pot did take much of her attention so Krystal left her to it while she set snares at nearby burrows. She'd check on them just before sunset and, hopefully, they'd get lucky.
Using Golden Recovery didn't take much Animus or time as she simply wasn't injured. Yuriko pulled several muscles but they were of little matter. With little else to do, her mind wandered back to the battle and why it seemed so much easier than the first time around.
It was because she could actually see and react to the Hunter's movements, she realised. She asked Krystal earlier about how fast the Hunter seemed to be and Krystal's response was that it was just as fast as the last one. Logically, that could only mean that Yuriko had grown faster but that was also unlikely. Unless she had been applying Boost subconsciously…
"...or it was the Golden Silhouette's version of Strengthen Physique. I need to conduct some tests," she muttered. Hard to do know though since she didn't really keep a record of how much weight she could deadlift or how fast she ran a hundred paces. She could try to see how many push-ups or pull-ups she could do at a time, which was about three sets of twenty and two sets of ten respectively the last time she checked.
She would have proceeded to check then and there but she was still occupied with stirring the pot of stew and the enticing scent made her tummy rumble something fierce. She had just enough self-control left to avoid finishing off the stew before the others came back.
After a quick lunch where she fought off Heron, Orrin, and Mikel for the choice bits of meat and most of the stew, she announced that they would have to call Shillogu today. A feeling of disquiet had been plaguing her mind ever since they talked with the Avos and, with the Full Moon coming the next night, she had a feeling that something even more catastrophic would happen soon.
"So, are we ready?" she asked the others.
"Well, I'm not really looking forward to meeting something the size of the troop transport," Krystal said frankly, "but I think we have little choice. We could just keep going north though. Which is something we'd have to do soon anyway. I'm seeing signs of the swarmlings coming closer."
"Well, I have some questions for the Avos," Orrin said. "Notwithstanding how useful the artefact weapon would be. But I agree, we should just get this over with. It's not as if we're handing a gold crown's worth of Sovereigns over."
The last bit was a mutter under his breath but Yuriko heard it nonetheless. She snorted in amusement.
The five of them headed to a relatively wide area near the lake. Holding out three of the shards, the Wanderer's and one of each Hunters', Yuriko and Orrin said out loud, "Avos Shillogu, we call for you."
Then they stood there waiting for a good few minutes.
"Well, this is stupid," Mikel muttered.
Yuriko's and Orrin's faces flushed and grew redder with every minute that the Avos hadn't responded.
The water in the lake started swirling just when they were about to lose patience. A whirlpool formed and a minute later, a huge shadow appeared under the water. Waves splashed over the banks and Shillogu trotted out of the lake, spraying all of them wet when he shook the water off his fur.
"Ah, a relaxing bath," Shillogu said.
"Ancestors!" Krystal swore while Mikel and Heron stared at the Avos with wide eyes.
"Avos Shillogu, we bring to you your request," Orrin said as he raised the Chaos shards with both hands. "Please bring us to where the artefact is!"
"Slow down, boy. Let me see if your offering is sufficient." Brown tendrils grew out from the bristles on his back and wrapped around each of the shards. "Hrrrmm. Only two of these are good." He tossed back a Hunter's Chaos shard back at Orrin. "Do you have something better? That one has been tampered with."
Orrin sighed and fished out the other Chaos shard.
"Hrmmm. Better." Shillogu started trotting on a path that headed northeast. "Follow."
While the deep-seated exhaustion from earlier in the day had already receded, there was enough of it left that Yuriko didn't appreciate the five-hour hike Shillogu led them through. They headed northeast for a while before shifting completely north.
If anything, having the forest's Avos as a trail guide was incredibly convenient. Thorn bushes bent out of the way, roots sunk deeper into the ground to avoid tripping them up, and they crossed every ravine and gully they came up to with a bridge of living roots and vines that manifested before they came within a pace of the edges.
It was a mind-numbingly boring trek though, which gave Yuriko time to consider a lot of things. For one, she wasn't sure if her sword dances would work with just one weapon in hand. The short answer was yes. Circulating her Animus according to the sword dance patterns worked, and it even adjusted to her having only one weapon, though the first dance was harder to pull off, she thought.
"You practice an Ancient Art," Shillogu said after she performed the circulation pattern for a sword dance. Yuriko started when he spoke, mostly because she wasn't doing anything physical. Which begged the question, how did he know?
"Uhm," Yuriko began, "it's my Heritage."
"No doubt it is, child. Though this Great One wonders how far back in time your ancestor was. Don't let me stop you."
"Thank you."
She continued practising as they walked but only for about half an hour since she was wary of depleting her reserves. Eventually, Shillogu led the five of them to a clearing at the base of a cliff. There was a rather obvious doorway set in the cliffside and it looked like the entrance of a mausoleum than anything else.
A cold chill ran down Yuriko's spine and from the way everyone else shivered, she wasn't the only one suddenly feeling frightened. Shillogu casually flicked his tail at the gate.
"The weapon is in there, but be warned, few have managed to enter and even fewer have made it to the vault." Shillogu tossed the Chaos shards into his mouth and chewed noisily. "Farewell."
The Avos disappeared into the trees a blink of an eye later.
"Well, what now?" Heron asked after an awkward moment.
"Let's make camp first," Yuriko declared. The sun was close to the western mists and they had an hour of daylight left.
A few paces away, they found a small cluster of boulders that gave a bit of shelter and with some effort, converted it to a passable campsite. They found a small spring a dozen paces away and Krystal proceeded to make dinner.
Yuriko inspected the gate once most of the camp chores were done. The gate was about five paces wide and six tall. It was nearly the same shade of brown as the surrounding stones, but the entire thing was etched in runes and symbols. She traced a finger of a familiar-looking sigil, wavy lines and intertwined circles, and discovered that it had a thick layer of dust.
She pushed her finger into the engraving, trying to see how much of it was filled in by the dust. The images were barely visible as they were and it took a very close look to make them out in the first place. The fact that the gate didn't have a doorknob or handle of any kind stumped her for a while during her first look.
"What are you doing?" Orrin walked up behind her. "Oooh, what's that? Hmm," he started tracing the runes, too. "They seem familiar, hmm."
"What are the chances we'll actually be able to open this thing?" Heron asked pessimistically. "I think we just wasted our time and our money."
"We're here anyway," Yuriko said idly. "We might as well make the most of it."
But try as they might, nothing happened. Orrin had pulled out a notebook and started copying the symbols. His frustrated mutterings were loud and it echoed along the cliffside.
"This looks like a lock rune, but why is it shaped like that? It can't be right. Is there an open rune? Urgh, it looks like modern runes but cruder."
"Maybe because they're ancient runes?" Krystal asked.
Orrin blinked his eyes before throwing his notebook on the ground, "Ancestors, I haven't studied those. I could be making erroneous assumptions that could prove fatal. Chaos, you were right, Heron, this is a waste of time."
"We should take a look tomorrow morning then," Yuriko said. "Fresh perspectives and all that."
After dinner, Yuriko took the first watch. She paced around the campsite for a while, letting the evening noises calm her. There were few trees near the bottom of the cliff so she had a clear view of the night sky. The moon's silvery glow covered most of the Chaos streams.
The top of the cliff looked like it was about thirty to fifty paces up and it ran east to west as far as she could see. Looking west, she could only see greenery about a longstride away which meant the cliff curved to the north. To the east, she could see the cliffside eventually turn into a tree-covered slope less than a league away.
She climbed on top of a boulder to continue the watch and it was mostly uneventful. She woke Mikel up for his turn and snuggled into her blankets next to Krystal's bedroll.
That night, she dreamt. It was the same dream from a few nights ago, with the masculine Golden Silhouette. Except this time, they were in front of the mausoleum gate. He glanced at her and nodded before focusing his attention on the gate.
He touched several parts of it. Yuriko felt the stone gate beneath her fingers, her touch moving along the surface. She felt a jolt of pain as something sharp caught her fingertip. Her blood smeared along the grooves and the runes started lighting up.
"Yuri!"
A distant voice called to her, but she didn't pay attention. The gate opened and she hurried inside. The Golden Silhouette had disappeared but the glow of her Animus was sufficient to illuminate the dark passage. It was a tunnel, she realised. Though it had some stalactites and stalagmites, there was a road made of pale stones that led off in the distance. The gates behind her swung shut.
She followed the path. It was oddly dry inside the tunnel which was strange since water was needed to form stalactites. She didn't know how long she walked, but even in her lucid dreaming state, she felt that it took an hour or so. Maybe.
At the end of the path was the familiar pale stone wall that she visited in her dreams. She reached out to the door and it swung open easily. The chamber behind it looked nothing like a tomb. It was a square room, ten paces wide, and at the centre was a pedestal.
The light of her Animus reflected against the metal of the greatsword resting against the pedestal. It was…well, huge and shiny. The blade looked almost as tall as she was and was ten inches wide to boot. The handle was as long as her forearm.
It looked like a weapon made from an alloy of gold and copper. The edges were definitely dull and it didn't look like it had ever been sharp. The blade itself wasn't of a uniform thickness and was covered in strange angular patterns. How was she to use this in battle? It looked like it weighed almost as much as she did.
Shaking her head, she reached out and grabbed that handle. And only when her Facet flared that she realized that she wasn't dreaming.