Even though Rumiga had a single ocean as its southern border, that didn't mean that there weren't any under its surface. For the Knight of the Abyss, the moment he found the underground bays and rivers, was the moment he could send his Revenants across the entirety of the plane.
Weeks of languishing under the waves had let him ruminate on his absent memories. Some of the Revenants, when their minds connected with his when they reported, revealed that they remembered bits and pieces of themselves before their existence now. He wondered at what caused his Anima to linger within this plane instead of joining the cycle beyond.
Each and every fragment that the Revenants revealed was filled with anger, fear, and hate. Hunger. Revenge.
The Knight of the Abyss didn't know who or what they hated. In fact, he had a feeling that most of the targets were already dead, or so far in the past that it shouldn't have mattered in the present.
But his memories…were absent. Instead, there was an intense burning ball spinning within his core. Power filled his veins from it, and whatever emotion those memories burned with, was so potent that his body had grown monstrous strength. It could not be normal for someone to demolish a boulder nearly a hundred times bigger with a simple touch.
He didn't even know where this sense of normalcy had come from. His previous life?
"My knight." The voice of his ruler, Qatir, touched his mind. "I feel traces of her essence. Follow it, and bring her to me."
Then came a tantalising scent, borne from Chaos, that seeped into his mind. And more importantly, a trail.
"I hear and obey," he sent back, receiving approval in turn. The army of Revenants stirred. The ones sent to the surface, and the ones sent to follow the rivers underground, had only been a tenth of his numbers. And now, all of them unfolded themselves from the sandy bottom and began their tireless march.
___________
Salter Blume didn't know what to feel at the moment. He had managed to worm his way into the expedition to reach the planar depths, according to the commands of his master. He and his team needed to secure the core, or rather, the area near the core.
The planar core was not something he or others like him could even come close to. It was the very seed upon which the plane was kept stable from the Chaos Sea's erosion. It took the excess Chaos flowing in through the Veil and through Tidelands and Channels and turned it into growth.
At least that's what his master had taught him. The Federation of City-States weren't exactly the fount of academic excellence. They were a mere collection of refugees that fled the Coalition of Independent Planes' infighting. Well, most of them. Some were other nations, defectors from the Empire, or even those who'd fled the tyranny of the Xylarchy. But that had been generations ago.
Unfortunately, once he had been inducted into the Primus' Agency, all of the dirty laundry had surfaced. How the ruling families of every city-state oppressed their own people to keep power, what they've done to dissenters. How they fomented endless war with their neighbours just so that their citizens had a target for their ire.
Suffering brought about by exploitation and greed.
He saw all of it and despaired. For what was he, alone, capable of doing against a monolith? At least it was so until he met a man who changed his life.
A priest of Repudiation. Their world was a mess. Shattered lands drifting on violent seas, constantly growing and dying to the waves. Let everything sink and turn to dust so that a new beginning could come.
Those corrupt leaders…even as their self-serving acts enriched them, it also helped hold the Chaos at bay. Predictable cycles create Order and Law, which in turn reinforce the walls of reality against the tides of Chaos and Decay.
Anarchy. It was the tool to erode Law. And with Law failing, Order dies. Without Order, there is only Chaos. And eventually, Chaos would form Order as its very nature was to shift and change. One of those changes would create something new, something better. Paradise.
But Chaos must Reign first.
And now, Chaos' leader was his master. And his master had a task he must do. He and myriad others who were tired of the neverending Order.
Help his master ascend to the next step, and he would bring about an end to Order.
So, he joined the expedition to find the core, and clear the way to it. The first blow had been struck by his master, against the core's guardian. Well, thief would be the more apt term, Salter thought, since it did not rightly belong to such a creature. But Zarek's forces and allies were all arrayed around the core, even if none of them knew what they were protecting.
But now, a new complication has come.
"Land gods and sky spirits!" The expedition's leader, Lucian Ward cursed from some distance away.
They had proceeded along the well-worn tunnel to the underground ruins, but had been stymied by a cave-in, of all things. One that their earthmelders couldn't shift. The stone was nothing natural, and they didn't have the Animus to even exert control.
So, they had been diverted to a different ruin, and now, they were fighting something that came from the earth and should have long been buried in it.
He watched as Lucian charged one of those monsters, and threw a punch, of all things. A strike unsupported or protected by anything but his Animus, and apparently, his nascent Ennoia.
Squashing his jealousy, Salter gathered his power into his throwing dagger and launched it, scoring a hit straight between the eyes. The blade sunk into the bare skull then released a potent discharge deep within the brain pan.
Except there wasn't a brain or any other flesh to melt. The bone did grow a bit saggy, but the creature didn't seem too bothered by it. Salter cursed as he called the blade back to his hand.
Years before, the dagger would have flown back, but now, by damaging the fabric of reality and using a touch of his nascent Ennoia a bit, it caused the blade to appear back in his hand and with a fraction of the Animus that should have been spent. It took several more throws, at joints and leg bones rather than supposed vital points, before he managed to down the creature, yet it still attempted to crawl up to him. Another of the expedition warriors took care of the cretin, but they'd already lost several dozen men and women.
The expedition had been attacked while they were at camp, and now, they were just buying time for the porters to finish packing away their supplies.
Judging from the number of monsters though, Salter wasn't sure if they could buy enough time. Then, it was only a matter of whether he and his fellow believers would abandon this cursed expedition or if their purposes were better served with these meat shields.
____________
Glorious Wings buzzed and clacked in relief once her cargo was finally brought to the nest. She had felt a sense of impending doom a few minutes ago as if she would be crushed if she were any slower. The bundle had already stopped wriggling, which took a wee bit longer than she expected, especially after she stung each of the soft-flesh twice.
The Animus she embedded within them was enough to ward off the ill effects of the Chaos air of the nest. It was necessary, otherwise, the change would be too unpredictable.
As soon as Glorious Wings pushed past the thin layer that separated the outside from the nest, she made sure that the two soft-flesh were truly unconscious when they crossed over. The Chaos air could change depending on the perception of anyone entering, but unconsciousness only meant that they ceded control over to the ones conscious.
She entered in mid-air, but as soon as she pushed through, she was within a small chamber barely big enough for her to hover above the dirt. She pulled up Silky Slither's net and plopped it down on the hard-packed earth, uncaring if the bump jostled the captives.
A dozen workers immediately approached her and fussed around the captives.
'Food?' One's smell-speech asked her.
'No,' Glorious Wings answered, 'not yet. Bring them to the Exemplar-Queen.'
'One obeys.' All of them answered with scent-speech, and they simultaneously picked up the net and carried it down the tunnels.
Glorious Wings nodded happily. Perhaps soon, there would be new sisters. Or more food, if the change failed. She spun around and prepared to launch herself back out into the outside. She had felt danger out there, but that could only mean one thing.
Strong prey.
____________
For a few moments, Yuriko considered whether entering what was effectively a Chaos lake was a good idea. She crushed her hesitation a moment later and launched herself towards the boundary. If anything, the Chaos lake made her mission even more urgent. Orrin and Asami were still Journeymen. They could last inside the Chaos for only a limited time before they died, or changed.
When she touched the barrier, the inner Veil, she felt resistance. As if it didn't want her to enter. She could feel herself being moved, and she could sense the barriers trying to bar her way. She extended her Anima and her Will and fought the barrier.
It would bring her to her friends. NOW.
She felt the barrier twist, and the space beyond it began to bend. But then, halfway through the process, a different sort of Will pushed against hers, and it was her Will that was displaced.
The barrier twisted again, and she pushed back. She knew that if she didn't, she would find herself either back outside, or in a place cut off from everything else. That other Will wasn't powerful on its own, she suddenly felt, but was aided by countless others.
It was massive, but also…clumsy.
It showed how clumsy it was by splitting the barrier's focus into two separate things rather than one. Either force her out or trap her. Either choice opposed the other, and all she had to do was lean into the second one and focus on not being trapped. Adding the need to be near her friends when she entered should help, but if not, then she would leave a trail of blood.
She put the full weight of her Anima and mind into pushing through, and she felt the barrier bend and flex. She sunk into it, and she could feel the purity of the Chaos within. It was as if she was back in the Chaos Sea. And with those sensations, her anxiety rose.
Clank!
And just like that, she was through. She landed on her feet easily, and her flared Anima told her that she wasn't in a locked chamber. There were passages on every wall, and even above and below. The chamber was empty, but that wasn't what got Yuriko's pulse racing.
She was inside a Chaos lake, wasn't she? So why was there no free Chaos?
She extended a hand to pull at the ambient Chaos, but… it wouldn't respond to her Will. Or rather, there seemed to be a layer that was blocking her. Even worse…
Her Anima contained strands of runescript weaving that allowed her to store eight hundred lumens of Animus as well as strands that drew in ambient Chaos to convert to Animus.
Those strands couldn't pull any ambient Chaos in.
She pushed with her mind, expanded her Anima to encapsulate the ambient Chaos motes, and only then did a few respond. Barely enough to change to a single lumen, and it took her nearly half a minute to call. Her reserves were draining steadily as she had the sword dances active.
And if she did nothing, she would run dry. She had never faced a crisis of Animus ever since she completed her Actualisation. And now, she needed to watch her usage again.
And of course, this was the moment that the Femorants finally arrived in the chamber.