'The currents of the Primordial Chaos Sea were quiet today,' The Breaker of Bonds mused even as he and a small company of Chaos Lords swam through the Waypoint. There were five other Chaos Barons behind him, the lowest level of his kind that were truly sapient.
Well, he was also a Baron but he was on the higher tiers, quite close to becoming a Viscount. Yes, it should only take another millennium or so. As for the barons behind him, they'd barely progressed beyond the Chevalier phase. That was the realm above Hunter. Chevaliers also had a form of sapience but they were more often ruled by their instincts than anything else. It was a good thing that a chevalier's instinct drove them to gather together and work to their betterment.
It was funny when the Breaker thought about it.
Wyldlings began life as a swarmling who often cleft together for strength and protection, but the moment they evolved beyond that stage of their life they became Wanderers, loners who could barely tolerate each other's presence. Afterwards, their bodies condensed into the form of a Hunter. They still preferred working alone. The Chevalier looked nearly identical to a Hunter, but they worked together. Why, he was sure most humans couldn't even tell the difference between the two castes.
The border of the Waypoint was fast approaching. This was the last neutral spot. Beyond the border were the Imperial Anchors.
Crachton Hold was the human's fortress that was nearest to the Chaos Channel in Rumiga City. As far as the Breaker knew, there were four other such fortresses throughout the channel that led to the neighbouring plane of Delovine.
The Anchors kept the channel stable, and the planes connected.
The Breaker's task wasn't to break into the fortress. No, that would be futile with the numbers he had on him.
He raised one of his four hands to indicate a halt. The barrier was in front of him. The fortresses were surrounded by Waypoints. It was part of the Imperials' defences. Having the Primordial Sea right around their fortress would mean that any hostile force can enter at any point around the Fysalli, but with adjacent Waypoints, invaders would have to infiltrate through a set progression.
Even here the Breaker and his group risk the notice of a patrol. Legion Praemus was not filled with weaklings.
Alone, he walked closer to the barrier, filling his fingers with Essence. Gingerly, he touched the barrier. Normally, just touching a Waypoint's barrier would be enough to either draw someone in or drive them out, depending on which side they were on, of course. Well, Breaker's Essence kept him from directly affecting the barrier. Instead, it allowed him to view what was beyond.
"By the Abyss…" he hissed.
He had never been to Crachton Hold, though he had joined several assaults against the humans in their city. He was used to fortifications, siege weapons, and legionnaires by the hundreds.
The Waypoint Crachton was in was empty. Or more accurately, the area just beyond the barrier had so little ambient Chaos that he would suffocate in a matter of minutes. All of the ambient Chaos that should have been spread across the Waypoint was instead concentrated in the very middle. Right where the fortifications and the stabilizing artefact was.
"Hrmm."
Breaker shook his head. It would take thousands of Wyldlings dying in there to elevate the ambient Chaos levels to something that could sustain him. And he was just a Baron. It was unlikely that the humans only had Knights in there.
'There should be a way to overcome it without that kind of slaughter,' Breaker thought.
Well, this bit of intelligence wasn't what the Herald wanted to know. No, what he needed to find out was the fortress' current strength and the schedule of their patrols.
He jerked his head at the other nobles and they retreated from the edge. The water in this Waypoint was quite warm and soothing, Breaker thought. Seaweed, coral ridges, and assorted colourful fish swam all around them, seemingly oblivious of the power the Chaos Lords represented. Breaker's hand darted out and caught a blue fish. The creature stared placidly at him from the cage of his fingers even until he brought it to his mouth and gobbled it up.
Nice and crunchy. Sweet.
One of the nobles, who called herself Dreaming Fang, mimicked Breaker's action. She grimaced when the fish entered her mouth, and she spat out the mangled remains after a moment. The blood drifted away.
The other end of the Fysalli was the shore. They climbed out into the sand. The moment they left the water, they were no longer wet. Instead, a strange replica of the Radiant Sun started to bake them.
They had gone through seven Waypoints to get to this zone and so far, they haven't encountered a patrol. Perhaps they were in the wrong area?
They pushed on to the next Waypoint, except when they touched the barrier, they were not brought to the one they had come from. Breaker stared about in confusion as he found himself at the bottom of a mountain valley. Goats bleated at him from a hundred paces away.
"What's going on?"
Dreaming Fang pointed south and when Breaker turned to look, his heart leapt to his throat.
The sky was shadowed by an enormous vessel floating in the sky. The hull alone was nearly a longstride long and three hundred paces wide. Elaborate runescript patterns covered every inch of the hull, and each line glowed with captured Chaos energy.
That wasn't the problem though. The Arkship's guards spotted them.
"Flee!" he yelled as bolts of superheated plasma flew from the hull.
Breaker dodged a bolt but was scorched by the explosion that created a three pace wide crater beside him. Dreaming Fang's form shimmered as she sped away. The other four nobles spread out along the valley floor.
"Of all the nasty luck!" Breaker growled as another bolt splashed on the boulder he took shelter behind. The vessel was too big. Their only saving grace was that its protectors were unlikely to chase them down.
Breaker filled his limbs with as much Essence as they would hold then started digging into the ground. He managed to create a hole big enough to hide by the time the Arkship's shadow passed over his boulder. Well, he dragged the thing over his hole then continued to dig deeper. A few minutes later his hands touched the Waypoint's borders and he found himself in a different Fysalli altogether.
He found himself in a barren wasteland with a couple of ravines. He could hear rivers flowing at the bottom. The rest of the nobles weren't around.
"Well, all of them were newly made anyway," Breaker shrugged.
Now, what was he to do? It was a bit too early to head back, but alone he would be doomed if a patrol found him.
"Time to go home then." He grunted.
He marched down the wasteland, hoping that none of the humans would find him.
____
A couple more weeks of travel eventually led Yuriko to a desert. The savanna simply got drier and drier with the earth webbed with cracks. The grass grew sparser and the trees were stunted.
Before she realized it, the last time she came across a stream was a couple of days ago, and now she was looking at eroded rock formations and wind blew gritty sand in her face.
"Huh."
There were about a dozen bamboo cylinders hanging on her backpack but only half of them had any water left. Her supply of meat and fruits were almost gone, too.
"Nope," she said and spun on her heels and retraced her steps. As long as she kept the spire behind her, she shouldn't have any trouble. For that matter, it wasn't as if she had anything to return to, back in the east.
But, if she was to cross a desert, she would need far more bottles of water and more supplies than what she currently had. Who knew how wide the desert was? She didn't want to die of thirst!
She ran out of food the day after and she trekked the rest of the way back to the savanna with her belly eating into her spine. It was the worst feeling! She'd never known what hunger truly was until that day.
After hours of her tummy growling louder than bony bear, the sound disappeared and was replaced by an empty feeling. Nausea, dizziness, and a penchant to view anything, even a beetle or a fly, as something edible. The strange plants, all green and thorny, with no leaves but with strange white flowers at the top, looked mighty tasty to her. Well, she had enough sense not to do it, but she came infinitesimally close.
So as soon as she saw grass in the distance she couldn't help but cheer, subsequently spooking a bunny from where it was eating. It raced to its burrow, but a single thrown stone was enough to break its neck.
"Sorry. You're not cute enough to be safe."
She built a quick fire, dressed and butchered it, then roasted it on a spit. Afterwards, she had to hunch over her belly as it gave the most piteous sounds, demanding why she didn't fill it with the tantalizing food that was just in front of her. She thought about leaving it alone to cook and look for a water source, but the image of that Skybeast swooping in to steal her food surfaced in her mind.
So she waited for the meat to brown. For the juicy oils to drip, causing the fire to sizzle and fill the air with its delectable scent, even as her mouth filled with enough saliva that she could have filled her canteen with it easily. Gulp.
She tore off a leg and bit down on it, crunching bone in her haste. Her teeth had become strong enough that it didn't matter much. Also, the inside was still somewhat red and bleeding, but so what? It was delicious! Nothing was left after that, save for the larger bones. Yuriko lay sprawled on her back while she sighed in satisfaction.
The sky was so high. And a lovely shade of blue. The Radiant Sun's rays felt nice on her bare skin.
Ah. Her skin had never regained the tan she had back before she inlaid her Facet. It was strange, but then again, she apparently absorbed the rays of the sun and stored it as some kind of power source than Damien used.
The Radiant energy wasn't responsive to her thoughts, no matter how she prodded at it. It was in her Facet, so she thought to use her Animus, but that, too, was a failure. Neither energy interacted with each other, though sometimes she thought it moved when she focused on it hard enough.
Well, it did get depleted when she practised Anima Refinement. But only a tiny bit each time. And every time Damien spoke a sizable amount was depleted. Maybe one in two hundred parts for every word? That probably meant that she would only have to suffer that many words out of him but apparently she also soaked up the rays pretty easily, especially since she practically was half-naked. Well, she still had the expensive brassiere cum breast band on her.
She half wanted to put on a camisole, at least, but it was made of cotton. It made for a fine water filter though. Chaos, the only clothes she had that were sturdy enough was her jacket, her pants, and her boots. She'd worn a hole in her socks already. And yes, her boots were becoming tight. As were her pants. And her jacket.
If she stayed out here for much longer she'd outgrow all of her clothes and she'd either have to travel in the buff or make new clothes out of leaves, hides, or grass. Not something she was looking forward to.
So she could only keep going, despite the unknown danger. Despite the very real threat of dehydration and starvation. Well, at least she was gaining ample combat and survival experience. Something that should be valuable when she joined Vagaris.
"What day is it now, anyway?"
She recalled the days but she was fuzzy with the arithmetic now. Well, she'd find out based on the moon at night. Hopefully.
After she finished resting, she continued on her way. The condenser canteen didn't work at all while she had been in the desert so she needed to make more containers. She also considered travelling at night, but since the heat didn't really bother her, it wasn't that important. She'd lose just as much moisture travelling at night as she would during the day. Worse, the wildlife might be more active at night too.
She combed her fingers through her hair. It remained smooth and silky even after what it'd been through. A legacy from her Mum. Ah, well. Her Anima flare had extended by another couple of inches. It expanded to seventeen inches from her skin now.
Her golden hair had also started growing longer again. Before it reached up to the small of her back, now it reached down to just below her bottom.
"Oh, there's some more bamboo!"
A copse was over by the stream. She cut a couple of shoots down and whittled them into shape. That gave her a dozen more canisters. She could stand to carry more, except she needed to make more rope.
Her hip satchel was heavy from the twenty-five vertebrae stored inside. Maybe she should just throw them away? They're not doing any good there.
Haah. Go boil them in water. Just one, mind.
"Oh, so you're finally willing to tell me what they're for?" Yuriko snarked.
Just do it!
Rolling her eyes, she filtered water into her stew pot and prepared a fire to boil it with. Once it was set, she tossed a bone inside.
For such a stinky animal the third vertebra didn't smell bad at all. At least it didn't after she cleaned the blood off. She watched the pot idly while the water started to bubble. Nothing was happening as far as she could tell.
Right until the water came to a rolling boil. Then the bone dissolved and turned the water into a dark crimson shade. The scent that came off it was far from disgusting. In fact…it smelled as if it was the most delicious roast beef slices she'd ever had. The water had turned into a thick soup, and when she brought a spoonful into her mouth, a burst of flavour left her nearly catatonic.
"What is this?"
Rations. And nutrients to fuel your physique.
Yuriko nodded absently as she gulped down the entire thing. Now she felt as full as she ever would!
Use Recovery, you airhead!
Ah. She settled into a meditative pose and circulated that pattern. A few minutes later, she no longer felt full to bursting and she never felt any better.
Now she was looking forward to fighting more of those things!